THE HEART OF PENNSYLVANIA: Philipsburg Story by Susan L. Kerr | Photos by Thomas B. King Excerpt from July 1997 Issue of State College Magazine

In honor of Philipsburg’s bicentennial celebration, it seems appropriate to look back on its 200-year history to examine how the borough started and where it’s been.

A panoramic 25-mile drive on U.S. Route 322 West from State College takes a traveler through forested hills and plateaus common to central Pennsylvania, eventually leading down one last hill to Cold Stream Dam and the outskirts of Philipsburg.

Located on the frontier between Clearfield and Centre counties, Philipsburg has stood guard since 1797. Although words such as “picturesque” and “scenic” are sometimes overused to describe its topography, 200 years ago the rugged real estate created major hardships for the first families in the area right after the Revolutionary War.

Henry Philips, a new arrival from the British Isles, laid out the first town lots and advertised them for sale in 1794. Each settler family was to receive a lot in town and a four-acre farm lot outside the borough limits. That year, 12 hardy pioneer families, most of them well-seasoned farmers and laborers from near Huntingdon, came to “Moshannon town” (from the Indian word “Moshanne,” meaning moose stream) to build houses and till the soil.

But life in the new forest town proved to be difficult, even for the rough-and-ready Germans. Disheartened by the isolation and daily scramble for life, the families gradually moved away. Within a couple of years, only one of the original settlers remained.

Philips eventually settled in the area in 1797 to better oversee the welfare of his new settlement from his headquarters in Milesburg. Philips began pumping capital into his Moshannon Valley estate and the settlement began to thrive.

Philips (who died in 1800 in Philadelphia) and his brothers, James and Hardman, were avid entrepreneurs in the area, building the first forge, grist mill and sawmill. Soon followed the first screw factory in the world, according to early sources. Those early enterprises were located on Cold Stream to take advantage of nearby water power.

John Shultz, the lone holdout from the original band of settlers, also possessed an entrepreneurial spirit—or, should we say, “spirits.” He opened the first tavern in the Philipsburg area for the refreshment of thirsty workmen.

The Philips and their trusted advisor, the former Polish baron Charles Trcziyulny, realized early on that the Moshannon area was rich in coal and timber. But Philipsburg was still too isolated to allow any real exploitation of the natural resources. In the early I 800s, the only “road” was a footpath meandering its way over the mountain to the Bald Eagle Valley and from thence to Bellefonte, Goods and merchandise traveled 30 or 40 miles on horseback to reach Philipsburg in those days.

Eventually, the railroad came to the Moshannon area in 1863, about the same time the prairies were being tamed by the Iron Horse. Rail, spike and tie opened up the region to industrial development and the utilization of the abundant coal and lumber.

Coal and timber provided livelihoods for thousands of area residents and made large fortunes for coal and timber barons. Once the area had better transportation, the economic boom continued almost uninterrupted for 120 years.

But the bituminous coal industry in central and western Pennsylvania was doomed. With the enactment of the Clear Air Act and subsequent stiff enforcement of its standards, Pennsylvania’s high-sulfur “black gold” became a smelly embarrassment.

Philipsburg suffered from the declining fortunes of the coal companies. It was getting less and less profitable—and then less and less possible—to stay in business. Mines shut down, and thousands of Moshannon Valley residents were thrown out of work for good.

Further economic disaster lay just around the corner. In early 1992, another large employer in town, General Cigar, shut down operations and moved away, idling hundreds of workers. About the same time, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania decided to shut down Philipsburg State General Hospital, throwing even more people out of work.

With its economic base almost entirely gutted, Philipsburg’s business district foundered badly. Long-time retail establishments and new businesses alike suffered arid vanished. And those that didn’t immediately go out of business sometimes wished they had.

Five years later, the remaining businesses are holding on, if not thriving. McCrory’s is gone, its plug pulled by distant corporate overseers: but, Dollar General just down the block has good foot traffic. A couple of family-owned cafes offer visitors a down-home meal and a place to rest the feet. Sporting goods emporiums, crafts shops and a couple of jewelry stores have the lights on and the doors open—not bustling, but making it.

A dedicated band of citizens came together, compiled a financing package and got the hospital going again. Townspeople gave their time to clean and repair the facility. Eventually, Philipsburg Area Hospital reopened and began offering a limited range of services. A town institution had been restored.

Walking through downtown Philipsburg today provides a tantalizing whiff of what used to be. Ignore the peeling paint, the neglected gardens and the curling shingles, because they’re only outward signs of hard times and not enough money.

Start your visit at the Old Mud Church on Presqueisle Street. Originally named Union Church when it was built in 1820, the townspeople liked the name for its ecumenical ring. Although the old ocher-colored stucco church hasn’t been used for weekly services for quite some time, it remains a favorite wedding spot for romantic couples. Its companion graveyard, protected by a stalwart, unfriendly stone wall topped with jagged rocks, contains ancient headstones of early Philipsburg Citizens. A number of Revolutionary War veterans reside under the sod here.

Further down Presqueisle Street sits the red-shingled Philipsburg Borough building. Erected in 1882, its white cupola belies its earlier life as a schoolhouse. A couple of Civil War era mortars squat on the lawn, standing watch over the squirrels in the park across the street.

Once-magnificent mansions dot the side streets, residences of the long-gone coal and timber barons. A record of the architecture of the town’s heyday, late Victorian chalets from the 1870s and 1880s dream behind their leaded windows and decorative shingles. Of course, tall shade trees line the streets, completing the Norman Rockwell aura.

One of the gems of the downtown area is the Rowland Theatre. Erected in 1916 or thereabouts, the Rowland has had its share of shutdowns due to lack of business. Luckily, its long history and well-preserved architecture have attracted a number of “angels” interested in its well-being. One of its interesting features is an old-fashioned, passion-pit balcony.

The Rowland, along with the Old Mud Church and numerous other town structures, have been placed on the state and national registers of historic places.

To commemorate Philipsburg’s 200th birthday, borough residents have planned a bicentennial celebration to last throughout the month. The Philipsburg Bicentennial Committee, working in tandem with the town’s historical society and other residents, has been preparing for the event for a couple of years.

A melange of sports, arts and crafts, a business and industry expo, children’s activities and other entertainment starts during the Fourth of July weekend and wraps up July 26 with Reunion Day. For dates, times and locations of specific activities, consult our “What’s Goin’ On?” section.

THE HEART OF PENNSYLVANIA: Rebersburg Story by Susan L. Kerr | Photos by Thomas B. King

Excerpt from August 1997 Issue of State College Magazine

Travel to Rebersburg, and you’ll travel back to a time when America was still young.

Samuel Miles bought this tract of land from the Penn family around 1773, back when the valley was part of Northumberland County. Miles Township, formed in 1797, is a namesake, as is Milesburg. Pennsylvania Dutch farmers were looking for more land and had begun crowding down Penn’s Creek after the “original” natives had been forced out.

Miles had an eye toward developing the area near what was to become Rebersburg. Then as now, roads were among some of the first public works projects undertaken to open up the wilderness and speed economic development. However, there was one important difference — there were no gas taxes to fund new construction. Most of the earl roads were actually privately owned turnpikes, with the owners/developers recouping their expenses from the tolls they charged.

Miles and a contemporary, Reuben Haines, paid to have a road built from Union County to Millheirn, through the Millheim Narrows (now Route 445) and into present-day Brush Valley. One of the old tollhouses still sits in the Narrows today.

Back in the 1770s, Haines had financed cutting a road through the wilderness from Northumberland to Penns Valley. Within 15 years, the road had to be rebuilt and it was then extended to Huntingdon. People traveling this road today are likely to call it Route 45. This was some time before1801, when a “great road near Ebenezer Miles” was mentioned in Brush Valley.

In time, Miles started subdividing his huge holdings and sold parcels to Christian Waltsmith and Stephen Bollander in the 1790s. Town lots were laid out in three phases, with the western section being acquired by Conrad Reber in 1809 and the eastern section by Henry Walbom in 1819.

The early settlers — the first of whom may have been Anthony Bierly around 1791 — soon erected a tavern and a church. The St. Peter’s Lutheran and German Reformed Church, the first building erected in the site plan of Rebersburg, was also the first house of worship erected in Brush Valley. Although there was a St. Peter’s congregation as early as 1795, the first church building — a log cabin — wasn’t built until approximately 1804. It was replaced by a more permanent brick structure in 1822.

Both the tavern and the church offered solace from the boredom and rigors of wilderness life. Old accounts say traffic between the buildings was brisk, with one pastor reportedly finding another definition for “Holy Spirit” at the pub across the road. The lack of central heating in the church no doubt also contributed to the popularity of the establishment.

Abraham Reber, Philip Wolfort, and Williams Kreighbaum established a distillery about 1801, followed by John McGee’s store in 1804. An Evangelical United Brethren congregation also appeared about 1834 (the Evangelical United Brethren combined with the Methodists in the 1970s to form the United Methodist Church). Shortly thereafter, a hotel was built, followed by Mr. Hileman’s tannery and John Reynolds’ harness shop.

Twenty-eight time-warped miles from State College, you’ll find Rebersburg. Just pick up Route 192 in Centre Hall and sojourn eastward through Brush Valley, beyond Madisonburg and past Valley Wide Farm. Prosperous farms and cheery subdivisions will lead the way.

Visitors to this community should visit the graveyard behind St. Peter’s, which resembles a “Who’s Who” of Rebersburg. These markers are works of art. One stone is surmounted by a carved marble urn about four inches high. It is draped with an intricately carved, and very realistic, white marble cloth. Two others in the same vicinity were made for children; theirs were topped with lifelike marble lambs.

Gently worn white marble headstones mark the resting places of early town founders and stand beside the crisp granite ones of their descendants. Whether placed there in 1868 or 1968, one is struck by the presence of familiar names on all these stones: Hosterman, Schultz. Bierly. Meyer, Brungart, and Kreamer, among others.

The same sense of continuity and permanence can be found across Town Lane. Three schoolhouses from distinctly different eras march down the street side by side. An old one-room schoolhouse, prim in its red coat of paint, sits on the right-hand side of the schoolyard. On the left sits a brick school building of a later vintage, the 1930s perhaps. Linking the two older buildings together is a young upstart erected in the 1960s.

Back on Main Street, just down the block from St. Peter’s, is D&D’s Store, an ancestor of retail giants. Although the emporium’s square footage might equal that of a typical Wal-Mart snack bar. D&D’s merchandise is nearly as eclectic and as carefully selected to meet the needs of the 600 people who call Rebersburg home. A short shopping list of items available includes takeout food. plug tobacco, the latest new-and-improved dish- washing liquid, tins of bag balm, and butchering kettles.

While the entire town stretches for a mile or so, it is only one or two blocks deep. Most of the action has always taken place on or near Main Street and no one saw the need for making any more streets than necessary.

Main Street is Route 192, where the town’s white houses are lined up like two rows of debutantes at a cotillion. Almost every tidy clapboard house has its cutting garden in the front yard and a vegetable garden in the back; most are accompanied by barns and other outbuildings, either lovingly whitewashed or weathered to an antique gray. It hasn’t been that long since each household kept its own cows for milk, along with a horse or two for transportation and work. Pasture was near at hand, as the hayfields begin right across the alley from the barns and chicken coops.

Today, many of the old barns are taking on new identities as small-engine shops, crafts stores, or gift shops. The alleys and outbuildings have become picturesque havens for the self-employed.

Single-proprietor enterprises dot Main Street — two or three beauty salons, the general store. a bookstore, a hoagie shop, a gas station, and a couple of other businesses make tip the bulk of the business district. There is one high-tech operation making components for measuring devices located on Main Street and there s a wood products factory on the edge of town. That’s about it for it industry in Rebersburg.

Life moves more slowly and to the tune of an earlier era here. It’s a good place to be in sometimes.

THE HEART OF PENNSYLVANIA: Lemont Story by Susan L. Kerr | Photos by Thomas B. King Excerpt from September 1997 Issue of State College Magazine

We record the history and development of our towns in their street names, cemetery markers, and architectural details. Lemont, just off Route 26 near State College, is a prime example of such records.

Lemont is a delight for anyone who loves beautiful old buildings. The village’s houses, churches, and historic commercial and public buildings tell the tale of Lemont’s founding, its glory days as a turnpike and rail stop, and its transition period to the town we know today.

Nestled at the foot of Mount Nittany, Lemont has been an important transportation center throughout its life. Founded in the early I 800s by Christian Dale originally spelled Diehl), the village began its life as a family homestead.

Soon after its founding, Lemont became a stagecoach stop on the Bellefonte to Boalsburg turnpike. The route is still recognizable today as the Boalsburg Pike, which winds along the foot of Mount Nittany, through Oak Hall, and eventually connects with Route 45 outside of Boalsburg.

One hundred and fifty years later, Lemont’s turnpike waystop heritage is still evident. The main thoroughfare in town bears the name Pike” Street, while vinyl-siding clad storefronts along the old highway still resemble rowhouse structures reminiscent of the turnpike era. Across the street, a couple of Federal-style stone houses date from the village’s earliest days.

Once the railroad arrived in central Pennsylvania, the turnpike system lost its importance. Fortunately, the Pennsylvania Railroad appreciated Lemont’s excellent location and built a spur along the base of the mountain. The spur and its attendant station supported a brisk, thriving passenger and freight business for many years.

The train station, now an area landmark, assumed a busy role in transferring goods and passengers from faraway points to Bellefonte. Boalsburg, Scotia, and the nearby Farmers’ High School, which sat cheek-by-jowl with Centre Furnace.

Wagons and buggies made regular trips between the train depot at Lemont and the school, now more commonly referred to as the Pennsylvania State University. Trunks and their owners arrived at the station at the beginning of the school year, perhaps leaving only at Christmas time during the term. Stories of students arriving in torrential downpours, future spouses meeting, and odd freight being unloaded abound in local lore.

With the coming of the railroad, the town center shifted from Pike Street up the mountain to the rail station’s neighborhood. A town square of sorts — still traceable today — surrounded the rail depot.

The stalwart Spring Creek Presbyterian Church housed what was one of just a few Presbyterian congregations in central Pennsylvania during the n-iid-l860s. Most of the houses of worship in this part of the state were Lutheran. Reformed, or Brethren — a reflection of the large number of German and Dutch settlers in the area. Presbyterians and Methodists, represented by immigrants from the British Isles, were rare.

Built of the good gray limestone from the area, the church still maintains its fortress-like appearance. It also features some spectacular stained- glass work. A personal favorite is the red and gold harlequin-patterned window on the ground floor, off to the side of the glorious main window of the sanctuary.

Across the street from the Presbyterian church stands another former house of worship, now the residence of painter Harold Altman, who renovated and refurbished the structure several years ago. Always immaculate and tidy, the church-turned-house still looks quite at home in its neighborhood.

Not far from the train station and the Altman house stands the old granary. The building, dating from the freight heyday of the town, is currently the focus of a concerted preservation effort supported by a number of the region’s residents. Fundraisers and work days are regularly announced for anyone who wishes to wield a hammer or operate a cash register.

Nearby stands another old site which doubles as the Center for Well Being. The Center houses a number of alternative health disciplines — yoga. foot reflexology, and therapeutic massage, to name a few. With an open, spacious layout, the Center’s polished hardwood floors often feature yoga classes and meditation groups.

The old station itself, once the anchor of the village, was closed following the eventual decline of the ‘Pennsy.” Fortunately, it too was acquired by a Lemont resident, refurbished, and subdivided into specialty retail shops. Attractively painted and landscaped, the old station retains a lot of its former charm.

Elsewhere on the residential streets of Lemont stand turn-of-the-century houses with turrets, little porches nestled under the house eaves, shell- shaped shingles, and similar details associated with the Queen Anne architectural style.

One of the current mainstays of the small business district is the Art Alliance of Central Pennsylvania. Originally a YMCA structure on Penn State’s campus, the building was cut in half and moved, via Branch Road. to its present location on Pike Street.

The structure was for many years the rehearsal hail for the Lemont Band — the village’s well-known musical ensemble during the middle part of the century. The old band hall became the home of the Art Alliance in 1968.

Today, the Alliance is the only not- for-profit art center in this part of the state. The renovated building serves as one of the few galleries in the area open to any artist to exhibit his or her work. Paintings, sculptures, fiber — they’re all found in the Alliance’s gallery.

A couple of doors down is the Cat’s Meow, a gift and floral shop housed in a former residence that has been converted to retail space. In nice weather, the Cat’s Meow offers outside displays certain to delight passersby and inspire craftspeople.

A description of downtown Lemont isn’t complete without mentioning the Victorian Manor. Housed in a late 1800s mansion, the Manor serves an enticing blend of French and contemporary cuisine. (Contemporary, in this context, does not mean dousing goat sausage with kumquat salsa.)

Pike Street is also home to several brick houses, framed by weeping willows, well maintained, and showing a lot of the ornamentation popular in the late Victorian era. This part of Lemont could have been created in the imagination of a romance novelist.

Dividing the old part of Lemont from the new is Spring Creek — a placid little postcard stream that becomes a brown monster running amuck in people’s basements when it rains heavily. Home to trout and children on inner tubes, the creek meanders through town on its way to Houserville.

The “new” side of the village reflects the population influx in the general area after World War II. The neighborhoods that grew up here have mellowed enough in the past 40 years or so to fit in with the rest of Lemont.

Lemont has had its share of problems which are familiar to anyone who has lived in the area the past five or ten years. The “Water Wax,” or the ongoing saga of the takeover of the Lemont Water Company, is one; the impact of State College’s growth on the village is another.

But over the years, Lemont has grown in stages reflecting the changes taking place in the rest of America. Today is no different. Preserving the past while embracing the future is a balancing act, not a mutually-exclusive stance.

THE HEART OF PENNSYLVANIA: Ghost Towns Story by Susan L. Kerr | Photos by Thomas B. King Excerpt from October 1997 Issue of State College Magazine

Who hasn’t read or watched the Dr. Seuss classic. “The Lorax,” at least once? You know the story with the environmental message:

“Cherish the trees in your world. And if you cut one down, plant another to take its place.”

Before anyone thought of the Farmers’ High School (now Penn State), before there were tree- lined streets named Atherton, College, Beaver, and Park, central Pennsylvania was a highly-industrialized growth corridor with a dearth of forests.

In place of trees, central Pennsylvania was dotted with numerous charcoal flats and stone iron furnace stacks like Centre Furnace, located across from the duck pond on the outskirts of State College. Quaint tourist sites today, these furnaces provided most of the iron used in the Union’s munitions during the Civil War.

The success of these iron-making enterprises arose after the interior of the state became more accessible through better turnpike construction and the Pennsylvania Canal in the l820s and 1830s. Better transportation made it easier to get the furnaces’ pig iron to market, and thus ensured the success of communities like Centre Furnace.

With wallets fattened by several years of good iron production, Moses Thompson, James Irvin, and their cronies were able to envision an academic institution on a nearby hillside. In 1855, their vision became reality. We know the rest.

But by the mid 1860s, the massive stone stacks were already anachronisms. Some historians say a lack of wood from the deforested mountains led to the decline of the iron industry. However, other forces were at work.

Modern steel-making technology was already in use in Pittsburgh. The more efficient open hearth blast furnace and the coal-fed Bessmer converter would prove to be the nemeses of the

old furnaces. The discovery of the rich iron deposits of the Mesabi Range in the Midwest also contributed to their decline. Without the well-paying (for the time) iron-making jobs, workers and their families moved away to look for work.

This is what happened to the ghost towns in the nearby forests and mountains, whose foundations a traveler can still see, out of the corner of an eye. in the underbrush at dusk. Some of the towns’ names still live on — Martha Furnace, Hannah Furnace, Monroe Furnace, Pennsylvania Furnace, Scotia, and Greenwood Furnace. Scotia, located in the Barrens of Ferguson Township, has almost vanished. Greenwood Furnace, located between McAlevy’s Fort and Belleville in the state park named after it, still exists, although much diminished in size. Both were busy iron company towns in the 19th century, with houses, churches, schools, hotels, taverns, stores, and railroad stations.

Scotia was carved out of the bleak weirdness of the Barrens — a sandy, windswept wasteland supporting a scraggly population of birch trees and the wildlife seeking shelter in them. Steel baron Andrew Carnegie thought the landscape resembled the moors in his native Scotland and named the new town accordingly.

Carnegie’s men had found a rich vein of iron ore in the scrubby undergrowth here. Miners were brought in to begin scratching it from the earth with picks and shovels. Soon their families joined them and a number of company houses were built to accommodate them.

Like most company towns of the day, Scotia had its own baseball team and municipal band. During its heyday, the grubby little ore-mining town boasted a railroad station, a Main Street lined with plain-Jane company houses and a medicinal spring. After the demise of the local iron industry, Scotia was dismantled. Very little remains there today, other than depressions in the ground where building foundations used to be.

Today, Scotia resembles a ghost town in the tradition of Tombstone, Arizona. The Pennsylvania Game Commission maintains a shooting range nearby; but in the last 70 years, the scrubby wilderness has reclaimed its own. There is little to see of the old town: but, if a walk in the woods appeals to you, take Whitehall Road east through Ferguson Township and follow the brown and white Game Commission signs to Scotia Range. Comfortable walking shoes are a must.

The part of central Pennsylvania where Centre, Huntingdon. and Mifflin counties meet was christened

Greenwood” when Europeans started to settle here in the latter part of the 18th century. Eventually, a rough-and- ready turnpike was built over the mountains in the early I 800s. A waystop, the Traveler’s Inn, was built about 1810 or so. Within a few years, a small village began to grow up a round it.

In 1332, an iron furnace was built on a parcel of land near a small stream and the little hamlet became known as Greenwood Furnace. A couple of years later, the operation was acquired by the Freedom Forge Iron Company and run more efficiently. The glory days of Greenwood had began.

For 70 years, Greenwood Furnace supported a thriving iron-making community, at one time boasting two iron furnaces — perhaps the only iron site in the country with this distinction.

But the new Pittsburgh technology and the richer Mesabi iron deposits slowly strangled the central Pennsylvania economy. In 1880 or so, the older of the two Greenwood furnaces was shut down for good. In 1904, the second stack followed. The charcoal-fired iron furnace era was over.

Most of the company houses were sold for a dollar apiece and then torn down, their lumber being salvaged for other uses. But the company meat store, the combination wagon shed and blacksmith shop, the local Presbyterian church, the ironmaster’s and bookkeeper’s houses, and a few other structures survived.

The old dam was restored during the Great Depression by Civilian Conservation Corps workers. And the number two iron furnace was refurbished as a reminder of a vanished way of life.

Former residents stayed in touch, holding “old Home Days” for several years, a reunion that brought the town together, if even for a little while.

Eventually, Greenwood Furnace came under the protection of the state, gaining park status. The lake retained by the old mill dam became the centerpiece of a popular picnic and hiking destination for area residents. The old iron furnace, standing like the remnants of a cathedral among the trees, also attracted its share of admirers.

Greenwood Furnace offers a generous payback for the 25-mile excursion from State College. Take Route 26 South over Pine Grove Mountain until you reach the stop sign at McAlevy’s Fort. Bear left on Route 305 and travel on this road for about four miles. Park in any of the designated parking spaces.

There is an interpretative walking path that takes about an hour to negotiate with little difficulty. Along the path are a handful of the 127 buildings that comprised Greenwood Furnace during the height of the iron industry.

THE HEART OF PENNSYLVANIA: Aaronsburg Story by Susan L. Kerr | Photos by Thomas B. King Excerpt from November 1997 Issue of State College Magazine

Can you name all 50 state capitals? There’s Columbus, Ohio; Tallahassee, Florida: Dover, Delaware: Aaronsburg, Pennsylvania: Albany. New York... Wait a minute — Aaronsburg, Pennsylvania?

Okay, this Penns Valley village never really was home to the Capitol Rotunda, PennDOT, or the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources. But if the town’s founder had prevailed, Governor Ridge’s residence may well have been located on Rachel’s Way in downtown Aaronsburg, and Route 45 would have been a four-lane high ay. Instead, the village, although now threatened by limestone quarrying in the area, has remained small and quaint.

Aaronsburg — the oldest town in Centre County — was a grand experiment in religious freedom, bankrolled by Aaron Levy, a prosperous Jewish merchant in Philadelphia who had felt the sting of intolerance. Levy bought a large tract of land in the mountains of central Pennsylvania sometime after the Revolutionary War. The parcel sat astride the rough turnpike that another Philadelphian. Reuben Haines, had paid to have built from Northumberland to Huntingdon.

The first European settlers in the Aaronsburg vicinity were Adam Harper, Adam Stover, and Jacob Stover in 1775. These men and their families were forced to vacate their farms during the ‘Great Runaway,” a mass exodus of white people from the heart of Pennsylvania during the Revolutionary War. A series of attacks and massacres were launched against them by native Americans sympathetic to the British.

The Penns Valley area remained depopulated for several years. with Europeans returning only after the end of the war.

When the Stovers and their neighbors came back, they brought with them additional pioneers bearing names like Krape, Miller, and Hosterman. You can still find these names on mailboxes and tombstones in Haines, Miles, and Gregg townships today.

Levy had laid out the plans for his New Jerusalem in 1786, plotting spacious town lots and wide avenues capable of handling heavy horse and buggy traffic. Like most towns of the era, Aaronsburg was laid out in the familiar diamond-within-a-square configuration. The streets intersected one another at neat right angles; but the center of town was diamond-shaped, making it a natural gathering place for travelers and residents.

Vestiges of Aaronsburg’s diamond can still be found in front of the post office, even though a nearby street sign calls it “Aaron Square.” The post office parking lot was part of the square at one time.

Religious freedom was ensured in the new settlement. Levy recruited settlers of all faiths, encouraging them to build homes in the town. So committed was Levy to freedom of worship that he gave a town lot, free of charge, to the Salem Lutheran Church. The congregation received an elegant communion set from Levy as a “churchwarming” gift when they moved into their new building with their leader,

Espich.

Before the Great Runaway, a Duncan family had built its homestead between what would become Millheim and Aaronsburg. The family returned to the safety of Philadelphia during the uprising, never to return. But one son, James, came back to sell the family farm. Taking stock of the tiny village’s economic potential, James decided to stay and opened the first store in Aaronsburg in 1790.

The turnpike running past the door of his shop carried heavy traffic as settlers began pushing back the wilderness. A number of hotels sprang up along the road and on the square. soon to be joined by a blacksmith, a nail shop, two doctors’ offices. a tannery. a carpentry shop, and a dyeing and weaving operation.

Levy never visited his grand experiment, remaining in the city he was familiar with. Aaronsburg was never fated to become the Pennsylvania state capital, losing out to Harrisburg after some rancorous politicking, according to some old accounts. It remained a small, pretty, farming community.

A couple of hundred years later, the town is pretty much unchanged, never growing much beyond a population of 450 or so. There are some new houses, but they’ve been built on the outskirts, never really changing the face of the town -

The core of the town consists of sedate brick and clapboard houses, interspersed with a couple of churches, the old Haines Township high school, and a restored log structure or two. The second wave of building in Aaronsburg seems to have come in the late l800s; there are a couple of beautifully-kept Second Empire houses along Route 45 and one of the side streets. The back streets of Aaronsbnrg belie the town’s agrarian past. The telltale barns lining the alleys is an indicator of the town limits a few generations ago.

On one of these back streets sits the third incarnation of the Salem Lutheran Church. Built first in 1799, it was rebuilt in 1855 and again in 1959. The headstones in its cemetery read like a “Who’s Who of Penns Valley” for the past 200 years.

The names of departed Hostermans, Stovers, and Condos are caned on the stones, as well as intricate granite willow trees and floral wreaths. While most of the stones are weathered marble or granite, there are also several thin sandstone slabs as well. Marks of frugality or poverty, these grave markers are simply engraved with a name and a cross.

On the oldest stones, German was used more often than English, with “Hier Ruhet” appearing with greater frequency than “Here Lies.”

Aaronsburg’s deep Pennsylvania German roots and gratitude toward its early Jewish benefactor struck a sad irony in the village in the days after World War Two.

In 1949, the world was still reeling from the awful reality of Auschwitz, Birkenau, and Bergen-Belsen and the hate that made them possible. As an antidote to Nazi poison, the people of Aaronsburg decided to share their parable of tolerance, creating the pageant, “The Aaronsburg Story,” in October of that year.

A wooden sign across the street from the Salem Lutheran Church still commemorates the pageant, calling it “The Issue of an Ideal — Dedicated to Living Above Prejudice.”

Haines Township and Aaronsburg celebrate their Pennsylvania heritage in early October every year at the Haines Township Dutch Festival. Rich (okay, fattening) food, entertainment, log cabin tours, a community yard sale — these are in store for the stranger in town. Blacksmithing and shingle-making demonstrations add to the carnival atmosphere.

While you’re there, visit the Aaronsburg Public Library and the Historical Society’s museum in its basement. Both are housed in a converted church still in possession of its outstanding stained glass windows. And take a walk on the side streets for a view of well-tended flower gardens.

To get to Aaronsburg, take Route 322 to Boalsburg and then turn left on to Route 45 East toward Centre Hall. Continue straight on Route 45 until you reach Aaronsburg. It is a 25-mile drive from State College.

THE HEART OF PENNSYLVANIA: Bellefonte Story by Susan L. Kerr | Photos by Thomas B. King Excerpt from December 1997 Issue of State College Magazine

If you drive from State College to Bellefonte on the Benner Pike, one of the first things you’ll see is Big Spring, a string of pretty pools of water beside Talleyrand Park and Spring Creek. While the sheer beauty of that park area easily attracts visitors year round, one cannot overlook the 200 years of Bellefonte and Pennsylvania history linked to these few acres of green space.

Sometime around 1769, William Lamb owned the original plot of land for Lamb’s Crossing. But the Great Runaway and the Revolutionary War stymied development in the area for several years. It wasn’t until 1795 that Colonel James Dunlop and James Harris laid out the streets and town lots of the settlement.

In the ensuing years, more people began pouring into the area, looking for a start or for a new beginning. William Petrikin became the town’s first merchant in 1796, opening a tailor shop. In 1797, John Hall came from Delaware and built a blacksmith shop at the foot of what is now Spring Street. The same year, John Dunlop built Bellefonte Forge. The year after that, the village set up its first post office. Masons, carpenters, hatters, tavern keepers, and lawyers followed.

Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Perigord was on a whirlwind tour of America in the early pan of the 19th century. During his travels, he and his wife visited the bustling settlement. According to an anecdote from the time, Madame Talleyrand exclaimed “Quelle belle fontaine,” or beautiful fountain. Lamb’s Crossing soon took on the new name of ‘Bellefonte.”

Shortly after Talleyrand’s historic visit, a rivalry between Bellefonte and Milesburg took root. Centre County was newly formed in 1800 and needed a county seat. State and county officials were to base their decision on where the head of navigation was on Spring Creek.

Flat-bottom boats could be floated as far as Milesburg on Spring Creek: frontiersmen had known this for 40 years. However, some enterprising lads from Bellefonte decided to push the envelope a bit. They loaded a boat with somebody’s furniture and dragged it across the rocks and shoals as far as Bellefonte, which ultimately became the county seat. No one seemed to know if the “somebody” was a bachelor, or a married man who soon wished he were.

It was also in 1800 that Roland Curtin, a man destined to have an immense impact on the area for years to come (both directly and through a number of descendants), came to town.

Andrew Gregg, William Swanzey, and Robert Boggs donated land for the creation of the Bellefonte Academy in 1805. A well-respected private boys’ school for many years, the Academy fielded various athletic teams against the Pennsylvania Normal School (we call it Penn State) and other colleges and universities in the late 1800s and early l900s.

Like most of central Pennsylvania, iron furnaces soon dominated the landscape around Bellefonte. The first furnace near the town was built on Logan Branch, just upstream from the former Claster’s building in Bellefonte. The Valentine brothers and a partner started the operation in the 1800s. Eventually, the furnace went out of blast in the 1880s and was acquired by members of the Sieg family. The same operation is today known as Cerro Metals, one of the largest employers in Centre County. And members of the Sieg family still reside in the former iron master’s mansion on Valentine Road.

The Pennsylvania Canal was constructed at about the same time, connecting Philadelphia and Pittsburgh in the early l830s. The main line of the canal ran through Lewistown and Huntingdon 30 miles or so to the south. During the original survey for the canal, a northern route through Lock Haven and continuing westward was proposed. This route was abandoned in favor of the southern channel, despite the best efforts of Charles Treziyulny, formerly the estate manager for the Philips brothers in the Moshannon Valley and one of the first Pennsylvania Canal commissioners. He also left his mark on central Pennsylvania history in other capacities.

The business community in Clinton and Centre counties saw opportunity slipping away. Not to be outdone, several area businessmen put their heads together and formed the Bald Eagle and Spring Creek Navigation Company. They dug a canal branch, which connected with the Western and Susquehanna branches of the canal, ultimately connecting with the mainline at Clark’s Ferry north of Harrisburg. The canal was taken out of active service around 1865, but the channel with water in it can still be seen in Bellefonte near the Gamble Mill Tavern and the Bush House Hotel, located across the street from Talleyrand Park.

Bellefonte’s enjoyed its heyday during and immediately following the Civil War. Six hometown boys grew up to become governors of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. The town is still proud of this tradition, billing itself as the Home of Governors.”

The future governors grew up in spacious surroundings, for many of them came from prominent Bellefonte families. Many of the family homes can still be seen throughout the town, with most of them concentrated on Linn Street. The homes of the Reynolds, Curtins, Greggs, and Hastings, among others, are among some of the best to be found in Pennsylvania.

Unfortunately, nothing stays the same forever. As the county seat for almost 200 years, Bellefonte has seen its share of change. The Bellefonte Academy faced the usual problems that private schools do, most of them arising from funding crises. After surviving several in the first years of the 20th century, the Bellefonte Academy closed for good during the Depression.

At one time, several of the old homes had fallen into disrepair; it’s expensive to maintain one of these old beauties. However, in the past couple of decades, a grassroots movement managed to get a large part of the town declared a National Historic District. While ensuring the preservation of significant buildings, the designation also opens the way for renovation funds for those who apply for them.

The business district is facing some challenges at present. However, Bellefonte is home to several fine restaurants, a couple of craft stores with a good selection of supplies, and an art gallery. On the same block, you can find a real, honest-to-goodness diner with a pistachio-green facade. The restaurant serves meatloaf sandwiches and real mashed potatoes, not those cardboardy things out of a box.

The downtown area can be a treat for those who drive the ten miles from State College. December is a fantastic time to go, for this is when the town transforms itself during Bellefonte Victorian Christmas. The townspeople annually decorate the storefronts with evergreen boughs and red velvet ribbon and conduct festivities in Victorian dress. Parties, horse-drawn sleigh rides, and a gingerbread house contest are only part of the fun.

So put on your warmest walking shoes and take your imagination and your shopping list. Get in the car and take state Route 26 as far as the Nittany Mall. Bear left on the Benner Pike — the mall will be on your right. Stay on the Pike for four or five miles and you’re there. Happy holidays!

THE HEART OF PENNSYLVANIA: Pennsylvania Furnace Story by Susan L. Kerr | Photos by Thomas B. King Excerpt from January 1998 Issue of State College Magazine

Traveling west along Whitehall Road eventually leads away from the traffic and congestion of State College. Although many of the small villages in this part of Ferguson Township are bedroom communities for those who work in town, farming is still a way of life for others. The pace of life is more leisurely here, more serene.

A hundred and fifty years ago, the reverse was true. While State College was still the germ of an idea in the heads of the Centre Furnace iron masters, Pennsylvania Furnace was home base for the largest iron-making company in America before 1850. The town was a buzzing industrial hub with a grist mill, a slitting mill, a nail factory, and a very profitable iron furnace.

In the early 1800s, various iron-making ventures were in full swing in Centre, Blair, and Huntingdon counties. An abundance of iron ore, trees for making charcoal, and native limestone deposits — the three basic materials for smelting iron — were all here. A rudimentary turnpike system provided transportation to Pittsburgh, where pig iron was processed into steel.

Around 1813, Penns Valley farmer John Lyon owned the tract of land where Centre Hall now sits. Lyon turned his attention that year to making iron at Pennsylvania Furnace. Later, Lyon bought Colerain Forge (near present-day Franklinville) in 1818. About the same time, he formed a partnership with his brother-in-law, Robert Stewart, and iron expert Anthony Shorb, Lyon, Shorb and Company was born.

In 1819 and 1820, a general economic downturn across the United States hit iron operations especially hard. The depressed economy no doubt contributed to the high rate of bankruptcy and closings of many central Pennsylvania furnaces. As a result, many of the Spruce Creek Valley operations were up for sale or on the auction block. Lyon added many of them to his holdings.

In the ensuing years, the new company acquired 400,000 acres of land and ore rights in central Pennsylvania, including the Barrens and a big part of Tussey Mountain. The Pennsylvania Furnace operation was churning out 1,500 tons of iron a year.

Sometime around 1833 or 1834, John Lyon constructed a 36-room, four-story stone mansion on the headwaters of Spruce Creek near the furnace stack that was making him extremely rich. The stream that powered the bellows at the furnace also provided water for the gracious home on the hill above.

The small Pennsylvania Furnace community also included a typical company store, a post office, a private school funded by the iron company, company housing, and a Methodist church. A short distance away, just around another hill, the Mud Dam contained a small stream to create a 60-acre lake.

Pennsylvania Furnace and its neighbors in the surrounding counties produced a high grade of pig iron. Known throughout the world as “Juniata Iron,” it was named for proximity to and association with the Juniata River region.

The “pig” part takes more explaining. After the molten metal flowed out of the furnace, it formed one large “puddle” with several smaller ones attached to it, resembling a sow suckling her piglets. The pigs were formed into U-shaped bars that fit over the backs of pack mules and oxen on the four-day trip to Pittsburgh. Later, as the roads improved, wagons were used to haul the pig iron to market.

As the fame of Juniata Iron spread, so did the demand for it. Consequently, sometime around 1850, Lyon. Shorb and Co. decided to move its headquarters to Pittsburgh. now a bustling river city tied to the East by relatively improved roads. After this time, the company turned most of its attention and financial might to the West, with most of its operations based in St. Louis, Missouri.

Pennsylvania Furnace continued producing large quantities of high-grade iron for several years, pumping capital into the parent company. However, Lyon, Shorb and Co. made a serious misstep in the latter l870s, a mistake that spelled the decline of the company and contributed to the rise of Andrew Carnegie.

The company, with John Lyon’s son George at the helm, made a disastrous investment in a railroad that subsequently ended up in receivership. Eventually, Lyon, Shorb and Co. itself entered bankruptcy. Under the careful guidance of its trustees, the iron-making firm emerged a couple of years later, but its star had dimmed permanently.

Celtic Iron Co., a consortium of iron makers headed by Carnegie, bought Lyon, Shorb and Co. and its holdings, including Pennsylvania Furnace and the surrounding land. Carnegie was particularly interested in the iron ore deposits in the Scotia area — deposits of such great promise that he planned to make a million dollars from the property, a vast fortune in those days.

With the discovery of richer ore sources and the development of new technology, the local iron companies began a steady decline. Furnace after furnace went out of blast within just a few years. Many of the small towns associated with the iron furnaces went into eclipse, some vanishing totally The stack at Pennsylvania Furnace went out of blast around 1888. The town shrank considerably but managed to survive in a drastically altered form.

The iron master’s mansion was eventually vacated by the Lyon family in 1910. Shortly thereafter, it was turned into the Fairbrook Country Club. After that, it became a boarding house in 1924 for a year, and was then used for dances and banquets. After passing through a few more hands, Fairbrook Manor was acquired by Robert and Juliet Harpster in the 1940s.

The Harpsters owned a General Motors dealership in Warriors Mark, an association that colored many of the events of the following years. GM executives used to spend time at the manor, as the Harpsters called it, holding meetings and informal conferences. The spot became well-known outside of automotive for its world-class trout fishing. The good fishing attracted two U.S. presidents to Pennsylvania Furnace: Dwight Eisenhower and Jimmy Carter.

Just across the road from the mansion sits an oddly-shaped white house. After the furnace went out of blast and its workers moved away, the company store went out of business. The building was sawn in half by hand. Half of the structure was moved a few hundred yards down the road and turned into a house. Over the years, a larger house has been added to the original, creating some odd but interesting angles.

A half-mile away, just around the bill, the bed of the old 60-acre lake haunts the landscape, its former shoreline a range of rounded hills straight out of The Hobbit. The lake bed once was a proposed site for stock car racing, no doubt dreamed up by the motorheads visiting at Fairbrook Manor just down the road. However, the little stream that created the vanished lake helped banish racing; it seeped onto the raceway and eroded the track during the first race. The only checkered flag raised in Pennsylvania Furnace fell the same day.

If you want to explore Pennsylvania Furnace, take Route 45 west from Pine Grove Mills until you see the sign for Baileyville on the right. Proceed down the road another quarter of a mile until you see the sign for Pennsylvania Furnace with an arrow pointing to the right. Drive down the township road for a couple hundred yards. You can’t miss the iron master’s mansion on the left, or the pretty pond beside it.

As an alternate route, drive out Whitehall Road until you reach the Baileyville/Pennsylvania Furnace area. The Pennsylvania Furnace post office is on the left. On the right a short distance away, a church converted into a apartments sits beside the road that will take you to the mansion.

Plan on getting out of the car and walking around a little. Other than the mansion itself, the Pennsylvania Furnace experience hides its charms from the casual viewer. Please remember the mansion is Mrs. Harpster’s private residence and the property around it is posted.

THE HEART OF PENNSYLVANIA: Pleasant Gap Story by Susan L. Kerr | Photos by Thomas B. King Excerpt from February 1998 Issue of State College Magazine

A few months ago, an Associated Press story ran in newspapers across the country about Breezewood, a Bedford County community located at a busy intersection on the Pennsylvania Turnpike. A hundred and fifty years ago, a similar story could have been written about Pleasant Gap.

To quote Yogi Berra, “It’s like deja vu all over again.”

Like Breezewood, Pleasant Gap was a sleepy farming community, slow to grow, but a nice place to raise a family. Then the coming of a new road changed the flavor of the community.

The original survey for the town lots was done in 1770 by Patrick Travis. But with the Revolutionary War and the associated Indian problems, it wasn’t until the l790s that the first family, the Treasters, settled on a parcel of land where the Bellefonte Lime Quarry now operates.

The only road through the settlement at that time was a packhorse trail that ran from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh. Apparently, there was enough traffic on the trail to warrant the construction of a tavern. As well as providing food, beverage, and lodging, the town tavern was an earlier version of the evening news and MTV rolled into one.

A few improvements were made during the road-building frenzy in the following years. In 1792, a new turnpike was commissioned from Philadelphia to Lancaster. In 1805, another pike was built from Reading to Sunbury, which was extended from Sunbury to Aaronsburg in 1810.

To call these early turnpikes “roads” is being very generous. Most of them were originally old game trails that the resident Indians followed. Eventually, the passage of centuries of moccasins, widened the trails into paths.

When European settlers came through the area and developed the paths into roads, only a few trees were felled on either side of the track. Perhaps a few of the larger boulders were removed, but the smaller ones stayed. Luckily, the Conestoga wagon from Lancaster County had big wheels and a high profile, allowing it to straddle rocks and ruts. Bridges were reserved for the civilized, weak city dweller. A real frontier settler just forded a stream at a shallow spot.

With the opening of the interior of the state, Pennsylvania’s population was on the move. A new turnpike was commissioned from Northumberland to Bellefonte around the beginning of the 19th century. This old road, now part of Route 144 over Centre Hall Mountain, allowed settlers from Union County to come into the Pleasant Gap area shortly thereafter.

At this time, the settlers’ homes were widely scattered. Thomas Harrison decided to make a proper town out of them, founding Harrisonville at the junction of the new Northumberland-Bellefonte pike and the turnpike that came down the valley from Lock Haven.

Turnpikes were rebuilt and relocated a number of times through the years. With the coming of a new Lewistown-to-Bellefonte turnpike running through Potters Mills and the John Lyon property (now Centre Hall) and over the mountain, Harrisonville was doomed. Bypassed by the new road, the population center shifted a couple of blocks to the west and Harrisonville was no more.

The fork in Route 1-14 just above downtown Pleasant Gap is the remnant of the competing turnpikes. It is believed that one of the houses just above the fork is an old tollhouse. In the same area, the town’s first post office was founded in 1845. The Matthew Riddle family operated the post office, eventually adding on to the building and selling groceries and supplies from the town’s first store.

The Lewistown-Bellefonte Turnpike was called “Main Street” by the proud residents of the new village of Pleasant Gap. However, it was still just a dirt road through wild and wooly territory. Late into the 19th century, people living beside the thoroughfare still got out of bed at night to throw flaming torches at the wolves gathered outside their front doors,

About 1850, the first Methodist congregation built its church, which served the people well for 20 years. In 1870, the little church was in need of some enlargement and embellishment. The church elders proposed jacking the one- story building up from its basement and adding another story under the original one. Despite this scary construction premise, everything went well until the fateful day a jack slipped, bringing the entire structure crashing into the basement, burying the workmen. The commotion brought the whole town down to the construction site, only to see the men climbing out of the ruins, unscathed. The lumber was salvaged and used in building a new church dedicated in 1 875.

As a crossroads town, Pleasant Gap never developed an industrial base of its own, thus slowing its growth. Unless a family owned a business within the town limits, livelihoods were made elsewhere in the area.

Men could walk to work at nearby Rock Farms owned by the Reynolds family. That was the biggest agricultural operation in the area. Other farmers in the valley could use seasonal help in the summer and fall.

The region’s well-documented iron industry also provided employment, whether at the furnace stacks or at the ore mines. Men were also needed to feed and care for the mules used for transporting raw materials and finished pig iron. And colliers, or charcoal makers, were always in demand to make fuel for the furnaces, which burned an acre of trees per day.

It wasn’t unusual for men to walk to Centre Furnace near present-day State College or to Benner Spring, where Philip Benner ran his iron operation. After the long walk to his place of employment, a man still had a 10- to 12- hour day ahead of him. Then, he walked home again.

In the l860s, the railroad eventually reached the area, making transportation easier and jobs more plentiful as the iron industry expanded.

About 1911, the Reynolds family and some other farmers in the area were persuaded to sell their farmland to the state. Pennsylvania had taken over the penal system from the county governments a few years before and now needed a new facility away from urban areas. The very isolation of Pleasant Gap and the surrounding area made it an ideal location.

Most of that farmland is now a part of the State Correctional Institution at Rockview, named after the small town once called Lauverville, now called Peru (pronounced Pee’ -roo by longtime natives).

Along the Benner Pike, it’s still easy to see some of the former farmhouses of the families who lived and farmed here. Although the men no longer worked the land for themselves, they still had jobs. Rockview Penitentiary recruited its guards for years from the Pennsylvania German residents of the area.

Although a sightseer won’t be permitted to stop and look at the former farmhouses on Rockview property, a stroll through Pleasant Gap on a sunny spring day is better than any drugstore tonic. The town is home to some nice older houses. Just keep an eye peeled for cars barreling down Route 144 when you cross the road.

THE HEART OF PENNSYLVANIA: Millheim Story by Susan L. Kerr | Photos by Thomas B. King Excerpt from March 1998 Issue of State College Magazine

It was 1775 and the settlers were on constant alert. Indians lurked in the nearby woods, threatening to mount an attack at any time. There were stories going around of young soldiers going to the aid of pioneer families, only to lose their own lives.

There was probably more than one young wife and mother who wished she were far from this bad place, back in Mainz, Coblent, or whatever German town her family lived in. Anywhere was better than this god-forsaken wilderness with its murderous Indians and shortages of bread and vegetables. And always there was hunger.

There was more to eat at the forts on either end of the valley. But it took a haIf day’s travel to reach either of them, four hours from a tenuous safety.

This isn’t the lead-in to a romance novel set in colonial America. This was life for the ancestors of Penns Valley residents in the latter half of the 18th century. The Revolutionary War was underway and the Indians of central Pennsylvania sided with the British. Some time around 1778, settlers in the area took flight in the Great Runaway. The entire area between the Susquehanna River and present-day Clearfield was a no-man’s land, abandoned and depopulated for more than a decade.

The first settlers in the area came here around 1773. The names of George McCormick and James Potter are found on some of the earliest real estate transactions from the period. In the same documents, there were descriptions of a path over the mountains to the Kishacoquillas Valley, later a turnpike. And in the western end of Penns and Georges valleys, Sinking Creek featured prominently.

After the Revolution, settlers came drifting back to reclaim their overgrown homesteads. On the banks of Elk Creek, Philip Gunkle started laying out the new Pennsylvania German village of Millheim, “home of the mills,” in 1797. There were at least two mills operating in town at that time, one of them a grist mill.

The area was still heavily forested. Houses were of log construction, without windows and floors. There were reports of wolves in town, although these may really have been eastern coyotes.

Despite the wildness of the area, there were tradesmen coming into town. Keen and Mussina established the first store in town. They were followed by a wagon maker and a saddle maker, two useful occupations in a busy town located on Reuben Haines’ newly rebuilt turnpike from Northumberland. German- speaking and English-speaking neighbors lived side by side, much as they still do in some parts of Penns Valley. The Pennsylvania Germans and their English-speaking neighbors had their own separate schools when the town was founded.

The Millheim Hotel made its first appearance around the turn of the century and was mentioned in written accounts from 1806, when Michael Shaffer was the proprietor. In the following four or five years, a shoemaker, a joiner, a tailor, and several other tradesmen set up shop in the business district.

And then in 1812 it was time for another war. A militia unit from the Millheim area mustered and marched to Lake Erie. They saw little action and eventually came home. The next thirty years saw Millheim acquiring the trappings of civilization. The first public school was built on donated land in 1820. Shaffer was the proprietor. In the following four or five years, a shoemaker, a joiner, a tailor, and several other tradesmen set up the business district, and then in 1812 it was time for another war. A militia unit from the Millheim area mustered and marched to Lake Erie. They saw little n and eventually came home. The next thirty years saw Millheim acquiring the trappings of civilization. The first public school was builtt on donated land in 1820. By 1826, the town had a post office.

1827 marked the appearance of the Demokratische Berichter, later renamed the Centre Berichter, which finally became the all-English The Miliheim Journal in 1880. During the years it was published in German. the Berichter was staunchly Democratic in its politics, no friend of Abe Lincoln or the Union during the Civil War.

The local newspaper reflected the politics of the neighborhood. During the war, Millheim and most of Penns Valley supported the Confederacy, mostly on the issue of states’ rights. Not a popular position, this would he like Millheim supporting Saddam Hussein today.

The war once again saw Penns Valley boys marching away from home. The boys from Miliheim served in the Curtin Guard of the 10th Regiment. according to John Blair Linn’s account in The History of Centre and Clinton Counties. Most of them came back.

The post-war years saw the coming of the Lewisburg, Centre, and Spruce Creek Railroad to Coburn, making it necessary to build a short turnpike down through the narrow valley from Millheim around 1879, the year after the town was formally incorporated as a borough. St. John’s Evangelical Lutheran and the United Brethren churches were erected at the same time.

It was around this time that Millheim really began living up to its name, “home of the mills.” A knitting factory was established some time in the 1890s, later reorganized as Harrison Hosiery Co. in 1901. A few years later, Millheim Knitting and Manufacturing set up shop.

Millheim Hosiery Mills operated from 1925 to 1959, making woolen army socks during World War II. After the war the company resumed making tine dyed cotton stockings, employing as many as 150 people. Acquired by Nittany Hosiery Finishers, the company succumbed to bankruptcy in 1971.

Today, Miliheim shows little evidence of its textile-producing past. A major fire erased a number of older buildings some years ago. However, the town is still a commercial hub in eastern Penns Valley, offering sporting goods, furniture, clothing, hand-crafted products, and massage therapy to area residents. Just outside town on Route 45, supermarkets mingle with farm equipment dealers.

The Miliheim Hotel is still in business, offering townspeople and visitors food, drink, and lodging, as it has for the past two hundred years. Hundred-year-old churches share side streets with homes full of children.

At the one and only stoplight in town, take Route 445 toward Rebershurg. The old Millheim high school sits on the right, desolate and scruffy. But at one time, the old building was the site of high quality education. The classes taught here prepared young people to enter the county normal school, a training ground for future teachers. This was in the days before public education came under the aegis of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania’s state teachers’ colleges in Lock Haven and State College.

The old East Penns Valley High School is located on Route 45 between Millheim and Aaronshurg. Now used as a borough building and community center, the buff-brick building ceased offering classes when the Penns Valley School District was formed some years ago. But in Brush and Penns valleys, old buildings aren’t often torn down. They’re recycled into something else of value.

Just 25 miles east of State College on Route 45, Millheim offers serene small-town life on picturesque streets. And the town residents are noticeably interested in the lives of their ancestors — nearly every building in the business district has a wooden historical marker attached to it. These plaques have a loving, handmade quality, born in someone’s home workshop.

THE HEART OF PENNSYLVANIA: Julian Story by Susan L. Kerr | Photos by Thomas B. King Excerpt from April 1998 Issue of State College Magazine

The history of the Bald Eagle Valley has been shaped by the little creek running the length of the valley. White settlers began pushing into the area in the mid-1750s, following the creek bed through the few gaps in the surrounding mountains.

The first white settler to build a permanent home in the valley was Andrew Boggs in 1769. The fearless Boggs had set up housekeeping in the same neighborhood as Bald Eagle, the initially peaceable Indian chief who turned against his white neighbors. Bald Eagle’s impression of the pioneers changed after the wanton murder of his family by renegade whites, but the memory of his former generosity and personal integrity were the inspiration behind naming a creek, a valley, a township, and a village for him.

The Great Runaway a decade later was followed by new incursions of settlers into central Pennsylvania after the Revolution. It was during this period, in 1784, that a large iron ore deposit was discovered on the banks of Upper Spring Creek. The stage had been set for the beginning of the Industrial Revolution.

Iron furnaces seemed to materialize out of nothing. One day, a large grove of trees stood beside a stream: the next day, a stone furnace would stand amid the trunks of harvested trees. Centre Furnace near present-day State College was among the first to be built, followed by others near Bellefonte and Milesburg.

The first to be built in the Bald Eagle Valley was Eagle Furnace and Forge, founded in 1810 by the entrepreneurial Roland Curtin. Originally a native of Ireland, Curtin had been attending college in Paris at the time of the French Revolution. Barely escaping with his life, Curtin traveled to America, eventually ending up in Philipsburg for a time before trekking over the mountains to Bellefonte.

There’s an interesting side note to the iron industry in Centre County. In the early part of the 1800s, a number of emancipated and freeborn blacks made their way to central Pennsylvania to look for work near the iron furnaces. The 1840 census showed that 11 percent of the population of Bellefonte was black, with most of the men employed by the iron companies. It would seem they played a significant role in the success of the industry, but little specific information on family names has been preserved.

There were a gaggle of small settlements arising in the rugged and inaccessible valley. In 1805, James Glenn, an Irishman, opened a hotel in the one that was to become Julian. Shortly thereafter, a schoolhouse and its furnishings were built of local logs. With plate glass impossibly fragile and expensive in a frontier town, the school’s windows were glazed with greased paper.

The Julian site also attracted David Richards, who built a grist mill and a saw mill on the creek in 1817. He produced flour under the trade name of “Locust Mills,” which was shipped to distant spots and became somewhat famous in the ensuing years.

James Irvin, a grain merchant from Oak Hall, had in the meantime married Juliana Gregg, the daughter of Penns Valley’s leading citizen, Andrew Gregg. Irvin established an iron making enterprise in Bald Eagle Valley, naming it and the tiny settlement near it Julian Furnace in honor of his wife. The settlement was officially incorporated as a village in 1837.

The furnace was never very profitable because transporting the finished pig iron was very difficult and costly. Irvin had not subscribed to the Bald Eagle and Spring Creek Navigation Company’s extension of the west branch of the Pennsylvania Canal, which consequently had its terminus at Roland Curtin’s iron plantation. Irvin chose instead to haul his iron out of the valley on pack mules over the mountains on the Julian Pike to Buffalo Valley. Anyone who has driven over this road (which is still in use today) will question his sanity.

Irvin kept losing money on this venture and eventually sold his stake in Julian Furnace to Curtin’s Eagle Furnace Company.

Roland Curtin’s foresight was paying off; his iron empire prospered. By 1832, he could afford to build Martha Furnace in the valley as a business education laboratory for his son, James. Martha Furnace didn’t do very well either, and was consequently sold, along with a share of Julian Furnace, to Moses Thompson in 1848.

A plank road was built the next year to connect the canal at Milesburg with Tyrone (some 31 miles farther up the valley). The new transportation corridor produced an economic boom for Julian and its neighbors. Prior to this, there was no road of any kind running through the valley.

But Julian Furnace wasn’t turning a profit at this date because of a shortage of available local ore. Irvin and Company blew out the stack for the last time in 1857 and dismantled the stack. The days of Juniata iron and its makers were numbered as Pittsburgh gathered strength.

Even though the iron industry had begun to decline from its previous levels, there was still interest in the valley on other fronts. As early as 1838, W.E. Morris, a civil engineer, had done a preliminary survey for a railroad through the valley. The Tyrone and Lock Haven Railroad Company was formed and preliminary plans were made to build the Bald Eagle track. But the general economic downturn of 1857 made it necessary for the firm to sell the right-of-way to the Bald Eagle Valley Railroad Company. The Bald Eagle completed the track in 1864 before leasing it to the Pennsylvania Railroad for the next several decades.

During the same era of expansion and development, Roland Cunin was influential in having a turnpike built through the valley in 1862, no doubt a big improvement over the old board road constructed in 1849.

Julian Furnace was no longer producing iron, but it was becoming an important rail stop on the “Pennsy.” Furnace was dropped from its name in 1886, and the village was transformed into a shipping hub for lumber and charcoal. E.M. Sturdevant shipped five million board feet of lumber out of Julian’s station in 1877 alone.

Until the recent past, Julian was an important railroad stop with several trains a day pulling into the town’s station. But with the decline of widespread rail transportation, even this activity slowed. Maybe two freight trains per day now chug through the village on their way to somewhere else.

Julian today is a largely residential community. The townspeople travel elsewhere to work, mainly to Bellefonte and State College. There are two commercial enterprises in town: the Granville Hollow Pottery right in town, and the Gulf service station along Route 220.

Although it may not be a shopping mecca, Julian is still worth a look. There are some nice old late Victorian homes on the side streets, along with a church which has stood more or less in the same spot for 175 years.

To get there, take Route 322 over Skytop toward Port Matilda. At the cloverleaf at the bottom of the mountain, exit right. Continue east on Route 220 for 12 to 15 miles. Julian is on the right, on the other side of the railroad tracks.

THE HEART OF PENNSYLVANIA: Boalsburg Story by Susan L. Kerr | Photos by Thomas B. King Excerpt from May 1998 Issue of State College Magazine

History has a way of taking modern scenes and turning them on their heads, For example, many towns we know today as quiet bedroom communities were industrial hubs 50 years ago. Locally, the peaceful streets of Boalsburg. now lined with upscale shops, served as recruitment headquarters for the Union Army in 1861.

Ironically, the birthplace of Memorial Day and its surroundings were held peacefully by William Penn’s heirs until November 1766, when they granted Benjamin Poulteney the “Plantation of Harmony” The following year. Poulteney sold present-day Harris Township to Reuben Haines, an energetic real estate developer and turnpike builder in central Pennsylvania.

At the time, what was to become Main Street was a segment of the King’s Highway that linked Philadelphia with the frontier further inland. The road eventually became an important route for stagecoach service in the 1800s.

Boalsburg namesake David Boal was born in Ireland in the mid 1700s and had some strong political views. His support of an unsuccessful uprising made him the target of a British army manhunt. After taking refuge inside a large trunk to escape the authorities, Boal decided to relocate to the former colonies. He came to roost in central Pennsylvania, opening a tavern beside the turnpike running through an unnamed settlement.

After claiming his homestead, Boal built a small cabin and added on to as his fortunes improved. Both the original structure and the two-chimney addition are components of the present-day foal Mansion.

Boal invited others to settle near him. By 1810, it became necessary to have someone formally lay out town plots. Aaron Stroup was the man for the task. He named the new village “Springfield” for the good water supply nearby. In the years that followed, David foal and his son George became prominent citizens. In 1820, the townspeople decided to honor their worthy patron by renaming their village for him.

The town’s name must have been the only thing that changed at that time. Other than working in the fields or mountains, going into town to barter for some goods, or going to church, there wasn’t much in the way of diversion.

By 1832, George and John Boat, Sons of David, held public offices in Harris Township and in the local temperance society. This was also the era of turnpike building across the young nation. Better roads meant more commercial activity. Duffy’s Tavern, a popular dining spot even today, was a stagecoach stop during this era. Boalsburg, like the rest of America, talked of progress and a bright future for the young nation.

But states’ rights were being loudly discussed at the same time. The discussion ended when cannonballs rained down on Fort Sumter in the South Carolina harbor of Charleston in the summer of 1861.

In those heady early days, Northerners and Southerners both boasted of their military prowess. “Yankees” and “Rebs” alike believed the conflict would last a couple of weeks and then everyone could go home after this exciting game of war.

The “game” lasted four years; when it was over, more men died than all those who died in the War of 1812, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War combined. But no one knew that — and no one cared — in the fever to recruit an army to beat the Confederates.

George Boal was one of the first to begin raising troops to take south. One of the soldiers was his son John, who was killed in action near Richmond, Virginia a year later.

The 127 local boys recruited by Boal left under the command of Captain Robert McFarlane. The roster reads like a “Who’s Who” of modern Centre

County: Harpster, Dale, Blair, Hoy, Jacobs, Johnstonbaugh, Lytle, and Musser.

John Blair Linn’s well-known history of Centre County lists those boys and their eventual fates. Most would come home, but some would be missing arms and legs. Others would succumb to diseases that proved nearly as deadly as enemy snipers and cannons. Perhaps a quarter of them would die far from home in Spottsylvania or Winchester, Virginia. A couple were captured, only to die later in Andersonville, the infamous Georgia prison camp.

By 1862, McFarlane had survived most of his recruits, either through luck or intelligence. He came back to the Boalsburg area and recruited another 130 boys from the neighborhood to lead to slaughter.

The dead were usually buried near where they fell, although occasionally someone would be shipped home for burial. One May morning in 1864, three young ladies were visiting the graves of some fallen loved ones. They adorned the graves with flowers, a practice they continued for several years. Others joined in the ceremony until Decoration Day became a national observance. Years later, the solemn proceedings were renamed Memorial Day.

In the late 1800s, the Boal family could afford to send its sons to Europe for an education. Theodore Davis Boal was studying architecture at the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris when he met the lovely Mathilde de Lagarde, a direct descendant of Christopher Columbus. They married in 1894.

Upon the death of one of her relatives, Mathilde fell heir to the estate’s old chapel, Columbus’ folding captain’s desk, and some other artifacts. When Theodore brought his bride back to Boalsburg, this treasure came with them. In time, the Columbus collection attracted enough interest that the Boals put the items on public display.

By 1918, the world was holding another war, this time in Europe. Pierre Boal, son of Theodore and Mathilde, had just been furloughed from the French army. When he came home that June, he proceeded to instruct the local recruits in the fine art of trench warfare. These troops would form the valorous 28th Pennsylvania Division, some of the first American soldiers to see combat in France. The Boats decided to build a lasting memorial to them on a portion of their estate. Following World War I, the 28th Division Shrine started taking shape.

The shrine covers several acres beside U.S. Route 322 (the 28th Division Highway) and has the Pennsylvania Military Museum as its neighbor. The vast grounds of the memorial are home to a World War II vintage tank, as well as a couple of artillery pieces. The shrine is accessible to visitors almost all the time, while the museum itself has convenient hours.

If you visit Boalsburg during Memorial Day, you’ll find a number of buildings in the historic district that have witnessed most of the town’s story. Duffy’s Tavern, located on the Diamond, was an inn and stagecoach stop in David Boal’s time.

The Boal Mansion, Christopher Columbus Chapel, and the Boal Barn Playhouse are accessible from Route 322. St. John’s United Church of Christ, originally a German Reformed congregation, has been a part of Boalsburg since its very earliest days. It is located on — where else? Church Street.

Whether during Memorial Day, the People’s Choice Arts Festival in July, or in the evening for dinner, Boalsburg is worth a stroll.

THE HEART OF PENNSYLVANIA: Ingleby Story by Susan L. Kerr | Photos by Thomas B. King Excerpt from June 1998 Issue of State College Magazine

Of you travel to the end of the earth and then drive another five miles, that’s where you’ll find Ingleby.

Maybe.

Like Brigadoon and ShangriLa, this small collection of hunting camps and summer cottages might be real or it might be just a rumor. Back on a one-lane dirt road that twists through forests teetering on limestone cliffs, back where wild grapevines as thick as a big woman’s forearm slither from the trees to the ground — this is where the jaded city dweller has sought peace and jealously guards it.

Don’t expect a warm welcome if you find it.

The village has been around since before the early 1880s, and George’s Valley locals are well acquainted with the area. And over the years, some strange local lore has been preserved or invented.

Among other traditions is the town’s name. Tongues firmly in their cheeks, old timers used to swear that Ingleby took its name from a local beekeeper with the last name of Ingle.

Beside one of the stony driveways in downtown Ingleby is a tripod made of pressure-treated wood. A fiat rock dangles

from the middle of the tripod, suspended by a length of thin metal cable. A real, honest-to-gosh, imitation, authentic reproduction sign tells the tale of the magical properties of the weather-predicting stone. If the rock is white, it’s probably snowing. If it’s wet, it’s raining. If it’s swaying, the wind is blowing. These observations are based on the meticulous record keeping of a fiftieth of a decade — the rock and sign were erected some eight years ago under the influence of corn squeezin’s and boredom.

However it got its name. Inglehy hasn’t always been a closed enclave. The Lewisburg and Tyrone Railroad used Ingleby as a flag station for its trains here back in the 19th century. At that time, Ingleby was a booming lumber town. Farm produce, lumber, mine props, passengers, and mail all were forwarded from the freight depot in town.

It took a long time to get the railroad as far as Ingleby. The rugged terrain between Lewisburg and the western portion of Penns Valley thwarted development for more than 20 years at one point.

Back in 1850, the Lewisburg, Centre, and Spruce Creek Railroad was proposed. Prominent citizens from the area were named in most accounts from the time. David Duncan (descendant of the first merchant in Aaronsburg), Spring Mills; George Boal (prominent son of David), Boalsburg; Eli Slifer (for whom the Silfer House Museum is named), Lewisburg; ironmaster/financier Moses Thompson, Lemoor; and Samuel Calvin namesake of the Calvin House Inn), Hollidaysburg, were among the movers and shakers who helped raise $200,000 in subscription money for the construction of the railway.

Nothing much happened after that point. The railroad rights changed hands several times, investors fell by the wayside, and financial mishaps took their toll. Eventually, though, a railroad was extended from Youngwomanstown (present-day Mifflinburg) to Spring Mills in 1877.

During the height of the railroad era, Ingleby was such a bustling freight center that a railroad spur had to be built to the middle of town. At one time, four passenger trains and two freight trains rumbled through town every day.

Dr. Barker was a prominent citizen of Ingleby and the lumbering camps around it. Even though lumbering was a low-tech industry in those days, a wayward tree falling the wrong way could do some serious damage to an unlucky lumberjack. Barker’s skill and bedside manner saved enough of them to bring him high social status in the area.

Ingleby was large enough to have supported its own school and at least one church, for a small cemetery still exists. A few foundation stones beside the road may be all that is left of either of theses buildings.

But Ingleby’s days as a lumber town were numbered. The major building boom of the early to mid-l9th century was over. The old-fashioned iron furnaces, once the wonder and envy of the world, were being replaced by new technology powered by coal, not char’ coal.

When lumbering stopped being profitable, farming became the leading business in town. The impoundment pond that powered the sawmills in town was drained and turned into farmland. The farmers over in the next valley and on top of some of the neighboring hills began shipping their produce on the railroad to faraway markets.

It was sometime after 1880 that good Dr. Barker opened “Barker’s Resort for l4ealth and Pleasure” in the Ingleby area. At one time, the resort’s name was written in whitewash on a series of stones placed beside the road to Ingleby.

The resort and farms flourished for another 40 years. Then, in 1919, Ingleby took its present shape as a little bit of heaven in the mountains of central Pennsylvania. Eventually, in 1971, the railroad tracks which had brought fleeting prosperity to the town were torn up and shipped away for scrap.

lngleby today doesn’t resemble a freight center, or even a farming center, for that matter. A handful of old-time cabins covered in asbestos shingles, the larger “Ingleby House” with its enclosed porch, a converted farmhouse or two — that’s about it. Oh yes, and the genuine famous weather-predicting rock,

But a close look into the underbrush reveals the old railroad bed, all mossy and wild. And the long-vanished mill pond has reverted to lush pastureland dotted with salt blocks for the enjoyment of local deer.

Only general directions are available if you really have to find Ingleby. And to find Ingleby, you have to intentionally look for it. A few miles off the road east of Coburn, it’s not a place you accidentally stumble across.

The hamlet’s residents came here looking for peace after the din and confusion of New York and elsewhere; rest assured, they won’t he happy you came to visit. If you must satisfy your curiosity, drive slowly, respect private property (most of it is posted against trespassers), and don’t block anyone’s driveway. If you meet someone on the one-lane road, be courteous and share the road.

Happy hunting.

THE HEART OF PENNSYLVANIA: Port Matilda Story by Susan L. Kerr | Photos by Thomas B. King Excerpt from July 1998 Issue of State College Magazine

Imagine a dusty little town at a crossroads of two old turnpikes. One is a din road: the other is paved with boards.

Most of the trees have been cut down along the roads. As far as the eye can see, wisps of smoke curl up from charcoal flats, and earthen platforms cut into the hillside where colliers burn trees to make fuel for the iron furnaces in the valley. At the bottom of the valley is a small creek, maybe ten feet across. It’s a universe away from the ocean, yet the town it runs through is called Port Matilda.

Originally known as Martha Furnace in 1833, it was supposedly renamed Matilda for the daughter of a canal company investor. It’s more likely the town was renamed in 1852 for the daughter of Clement Beckwith, an early landowner and the first storekeeper in town. The “Port” was probably a bit of humor typical of the time, like “Jersey Shore” in Lycoming County.

Squire Beckwirh, himself a landowner with extensive holdings in the Port Matilda area, laid out the official town lots in 1841, but Europeans had been living in the area for 40 years or more. Sometime around 1806, Halfmoon Valley resident Abraham Elder crossed the mountain ridge into Upper Bald Eagle Valley and established the first grist mill in the area. Elder was neither a good businessman nor a good miller — the area was very far from any big markets and the millstream was dry for most of the summer.

Ironically, Elder’s mill was probably one of the few to survive long enough to cu bankrupt. Early mills had a tendency to burn to the ground, be rebuilt, and then bum down again. It’s likely that the friction of unlubricated wooden shafts rubbing against the inside of wooden bearings sparked more than one blaze, but millers believed that the wooden components ground the best flour.

By 1830, nearby Hannah Furnace was in blast, having been built by Lloyd, Steele and Co. Within a year, the company had folded, to be replaced by Lloyd & McNamara. Evidently, they too ran into difficulties and sold the operations to Lyon, Shorb and Co. in 1834. Further down the valley, Martha Furnace was also in blast, but it too faltered and was sold to Moses Thompson’s company around the same time.

Two years later, the famous Plank Road was built through Bald Eagle Valley and Port Matilda. Thirty-one miles of wooden road connected Milesburg with Tyrone. Today, we call it U.S. Route 220.

The turnpike era ushered in a period of development and faster, cheaper transportation. With easier travel came more settlers, which in turn attracted tanneries, blacksmiths, grist mills, and distilleries. These were soon joined by a planting mill, a sawmill, and a couple more stores. However, the first school wasn’t built until 1860 and the first church in 1869. This church, the Bald Eagle Presbyterian, still stands beside U.S. Route 322 just outside downtown Port Matilda.

In spite of the jokes about the popularity of taverns and distilleries in early settlements, both establishments had vital functions. Taverns were the Internet of the day, a place where townspeople mingled with travelers bearing the latest news. And distilling corn, rye, and wheat into a more concentrated form made sense when the primary grain markets lay a couple of hundred miles to the east and west. But drinking and drunkenness were evidently problematic. One distillery owner, John Copenhaver, was so troubled by the problems that he shut down his operation after five years and opened a temperance house instead in

1880.

The railroad found its way to Port Matilda around this time, adding another means of transportation to the merchants and townspeople. The Pennsylvania Railroad operated at least three trains daily on the line through Bald Eagle Valley.

Early in the 20th century, large deposits of high-grade fire clay were found in the mountains above Port Matilda. The abundance of clay, combined with “The Porfs” crossroads location and railroad siding, ensured some economic good times for the town.

In 1916, the Superior Brick Company began mining clay from the north face of Bald Eagle Mountain. The mineral was crushed on-site at the mine location and was then loaded onto rail cars. The cars where lowered down an incline plane to the brick factory below.

Unfortunately, for unknown reasons, the company always teetered on the brink of bankruptcy. The McFeely Brick Company of Latrobe eventually bought the operation in 1925 and remained a major employer in the area for many years. Coincidentally, this was the same year in which Port Matilda was finally incorporated as a town.

McFeely employed some 200 workers during its heyday. These men turned out 60,000 fire bricks a day to line the furnaces of steel mills and glass factories, part of the industrial might that made America the economic power it is today. Most of the bricks were shipped to West Virginia and other parts of Pennsylvania, although some found their way to Turkey.

After the industrial downsizing that followed World War II, many of the brick plants in central Pennsylvania closed down. Only a few survived, operating on a much smaller scale. McFeely held on until 1956, when General Refractories bought the Port Matilda operation. Shortly thereafter, the plant on the mountainside was closed and eventually tom down.

There aren’t any large employers in Port Matilda these days. Most of the businesses located in the town are retailers — sporting goods stores, building contractors, a clock maker, a busy convenience store.

The scars from the clay mining activities are still visible on the mountain. The site of the old McFeely operation on the side of Bald Eagle Mountain can still be seen from the stoplight in Port Matilda. In the winter, a driver coming from Philipsburg on Route 322 can probably see the old clay workings high on the mountain ahead.

There are several interesting older homes on the back streets of Port Matilda. The residential areas sit a block or two away from 322 and 220 — it’s worth taking a stroll to see them.

THE HEART OF PENNSYLVANIA: Milesburg Story by Susan L. Kerr | Photos by Thomas B. King Excerpt from August 1998 Issue of State College Magazine

Milesburg is probably most familiar to residents of Centre County as the next-door neighbor of Bellefonte and the last town before picking up Interstate 80. But its historic founding, rise, and decline make its story one of the most interesting in the area.

Samuel Miles first scouted the area during the French and Indian War in the mid-1760s. As a 17- year-old officer stationed at Fort Augusta (Sunbury). Miles became familiar with the parcel of land at the confluence of the Bald Eagle and Spring creeks. The site was so promising that he returned there a few years later.

When Miles returned around 1769, a settlement was already in place, cornprised of three cabins near the present-day intersection of Mill and Market streets. Andrew Boggs was the first white man to build a permanent home in the area. Boegs’ homestead site is today commemorated by a historical marker, just a short distance across the street from the ‘Milesburg Doughboy’ statue.

Sam Miles prospered at his new home, eventually amassing enough cash to go into an iron furnace partnership with Colonel John Patton. Their first venture together was Centre Furnace, the stone stack that welcomes drivers as they enter State College from the north on State Route 26.

Sam had a new town laid out near his original homestead in 1793 and named it after himself, calling it “Milesborough.” Later, in 1797, Miles started a lucrative iron operation nearby on the road between Bellefonte and his new town. Its Juniata iron was further processed into wire rods and metal for boilerplates at a forge that was constructed later. John Blair Linn’s History of Centre and Clinton Counties says that it and a rolling mill were both rebuilt sometime around 1850.

Miles laid out his little town like most others at the time, following the federal ‘grid and diamond” pattern found across Pennsylvania. Lewistown in Mifflin County has one of the best examples still in existence. Locally, Bellefonte and Boalsburg both have recognizable diamonds at their hearts. Milesburg’s still exists, but the search requires a little effort.

State Route 144 connects Bellefonte and Milesburg today, but 150 years ago the roadbed lay slight- yards on each side. Over the years, really to the north of where it now is, just skirting the foot of the mountain. It passed very near the old stone house (the location of Miller’s Hoagies) on the hill overlooking Route 144. The house was built early in Milesburg’s history by Jacob Shirk and was used as an ironmaster’s mansion by Sam Miles’ son.

As the turnpike entered town, it became Center Street. Center Street’s intersection with Market Street was widened into a town square, perhaps 50 yards on each side. Over the years, residents have plowed up the corners of the square and turned them into front yards. But the perimeter of the old square is preserved by the outline of old sidewalks.

The buildings surrounding the vanished square have been there since the early 1800s at a time when Milesburg was the most important town within a 20-mile radius. In 1800, it had maybe a dozen buildings.

In 1809, the Bellefonte-Philipsburg-Pittsburgh turnpike was built through bringing enough traffic to warrant construction of a bridge across Bald Eagle Creek at the bottom of Center Street.

The most striking structure on the old square is a circa-l810 tavern, now used as a private home. Part stone/part timber frame, the house was one of the two buildings in Milesburg not built of logs at the time.

At the time of the turnpike’s construction, the Franklin House and the Black Horse provided lodging and food for travelers, according to the record book. Could the stone-and-timber house have been one of these?

Other houses on the square have the look of log structures covered by a couple of centuries of siding and shingles. And the brick Baptist church has stood watch over Market Street since sometime around 1822, replacing an earlier log structure.

A couple of blocks uphill from the square lay the Bald Eagle and Spring Creek Navigation Company Canal. Financed by farsighted businessmen, many of them now-famous ironmasters, the canal connected Centre County with the West Branch of the Pennsylvania Canal near Lock Haven. Cargo was unloaded on the docks at Milesburg and local produce and iron was loaded back on the canal boats.

Now just a barely discernible depression in some backyards, the canal was an early ancestor of Interstate 80, spurring economic development and opening both eastern and western markets for Juniata pig iron, reputedly the best in the world at the time because of its high carbon content. Opened as far as Milesburg in 1847, the canal had a short life, ceasing operations in 1865 after a series of disastrous spring floods.

The town had two early grist mills, too, only one of which burned down. It was rebuilt and survived into the 20th century, eventually being sold to the West Penn Power Company for electricity generation. West Penn then built a coal-fired facility at the site, part of which still stands although the plant is slated for demolition.

While all this activity was going on, Sam Miles’ two sons, John and Joseph, ran the Milesburg furnace for their father. Their personal records present solid evidence of black workers at iron operations in Centre County as early as 1807. At first, enslaved and indentured blacks were employed. However, as time went on, free blacks became increasingly important in the local iron economy, comprising about 11 percent of Bellefonte’s population at the time.

While Bellefonte continued to gain prominence as the county seat — which some claim it stole from Milesburg — Milesburg was generally regarded as the head of navigation due to its location on Bald Eagle Creek. When Centre County was being carved out of Northumberland County in 1800, Milesburg was the hands-down contender for the county seat. But some Bellefonte entrepreneurs piled second-hand furniture on a raft and dragged it up Spring Creek. Bellefonte was declared the head of navigation and became the county seat soon after.

But Milesburg continued as an industrial center. The Milesburg Axe Factory, founded in 1841 by C.K. Essington, used the nearby abundance of pig iron to produce high quality tools, turning out 200 axes each week. Seven men worked for Essington, a former employee of Sam Miles.

Milesburg continued through the years, losing some prominence with the decline of the iron industry. And like most other central Pennsylvania towns, she sent her boys off to armed conflicts in North America and Europe. Several young men lost their lives or limbs in the Mexican War and the Civil War. They were honored in the customary ways of the time.

But the veterans of World War I were honored most visibly by the statue of the doughboy. The statue received significant damage a few years ago after having been involved in a traffic accident (the doughboy was not driving at the time). After some extensive repair work and a relocation, the Milesburg Doughboy welcomes visitors to town. He stands guard at the comer of State Route 144 and Market Street.

Driving from State College on State Route 144, a right turn on to Market Street beside the statue will have a visitor pointed toward the old town square. Drive straight ahead for a block or two. Pull over, park, and take a walk through a pretty part of Centre County history.

THE HEART OF PENNSYLVANIA: Spring Hills Story by Susan L. Kerr | Photos by Thomas B. King Excerpt from September 1998 Issue of State College Magazine

Granted, Spring Mills doesn’t have the most original name you’ve ever heard of. There must be a couple dozen towns in Centre County with “Spring” and “Mills” in their names, for heaven’s sake.

But the town’s first name wasn’t anything to write home about, either — the little farming and lumbering hamlet was called “McCormick’s Settlement” in the years following the Revolutionary War, the first permanent village on the site. Before that, hostile Indians kept attacking and killing the first settlers in Penns Valley. It was only after the Great Runaway ended around 1780 that Europeans felt comfortable enough to return.

James Cook came to the area around 1790, and erected a saw mill and a grist mill at the confluence of Penns and Sinking creeks. About the same time, George McCormick swaggered into town and built the second saw mill, much of which still stands near Penns Creek today. Part of the mill dam can be seen in the creek.

McCormick and many of the early settlers in Penns Valley were Scotch-Irish, most of whom had probably just found a nice parcel of land and set up housekeeping on it without bothering to get a title to the land in the first place.

This habit of squatting on other people’s land didn’t endear them to Pennsylvania’s early administrators, who were mostly members of William Penn’s family. One of them complained constantly and bitterly about the Scotch-Irish. “These people give me no rest, as they are constantly moving into unclaimed land and setting up their rude dwellings,” he wrote in a letter to a colleague. The double meaning of “rude” may have been intentional on his part.

Fortunately, the same itchy feet which took the Scotch-Irish across the ocean and into the New World also kept them on the move once they got here. Within a few years, the Scotch-Irish moved further west, being displaced in turn by the Pennsylvania Germans who came to stay.

The “Dutch” were prosperous and successful farmers, and the produce of their fields found its way to the newly- renamed “Spring Mills,” with its ever-growing number of grist mills. The flour ground in these mills fed the population of the surrounding countryside, with enough left over to sell for hard cash.

Barrels of flour and farm produce were rafted down Penns Creek in the springtime during periods of high water. The farm goods thus found their ay to Selinsgrove, where Penns Creek finally empties into the wide Susquehanna River.

The timber in the area was also of high quality — and huge size. The straightest trees were felled and floated down Penns Creek to the Susquehanna, and then on to Chesapeake Bay where they were used as masts on sailing ships.

During this post-war era, civilization came slowly and steadily to the frontier settlements like Spring Mills. The easier, safer life probably couldn’t come soon enough for people like James Potter, a confidante and a staff officer in Washington’s army during the Revolution, who had lost a son in an Indian attack in the 1770s.

Potter founded Potters Mills and later moved to a parcel of land he owned in partnership with Reuben Haines, the Philadelphia Quaker who held vast tracts of land in central Pennsylvania.

Hard-working and resourceful, Potter found more success in the Spring Mills area, probably the best known settlement in the valley east of Lewistown at the time. His family soon gained social prominence, especially when his daughter, Martha, married Andrew Gregg, a leading citizen of the day. Andrew and Martha’s family tree would grow to include ironmasters, Civil War generals, and governors.

After the turn of the century, merchants began setting up shop in Spring Mills. The first known one is Thomas Huston, although there was at least one who preceded him. The present- day Fairlawn Store is housed in a brick building that dates from around that time.

The era of the railroad was just dawning in the mid-1830s. A track was planned to run from Lewisburg, through Penns Valley, and eventually on to Hollidaysburg. Nothing ever came of this grand plan, though

through the mountains and across swampy bottom land was too much for the technology that existed at the time.

With time, however, better and easier methods of railroad building were developed. In 1877, the railroad was completed from Lewisburg to Spring Mills.

The coming of the railroad spawned big dreams in the minds of 19th-century entrepreneurs. In 1883, for example, Israel J. Grenoble erected the big white hotel on the hill overlooking Spring Mills. Originally planned as a mountain resort hotel that could house the 100 guests that the railroad would surely bring, Grenoble’s fantasy is now a vinyl-sided apartment building.

Grenoble may not have been a very good hotel owner, but his sizable establishment beside the creek proved he was a good merchant. Other stores from the same time were G.H. Hassenplug’s General Merchandise and Hicks Brothers Hardware. Although their names disappeared from the storefronts years ago, the buildings still stand. At least one of them still has some of the features of an old-time emporium, including display windows now serving as bay windows.

It was around 1910 or so that Spring Mills really came into its own as a commercial center. Just a few yards down a side street from the freight yard stands the original Spring Mills National Bank building, erected in 1911 according to its cornerstone.

At the time of World War I, the townspeople decided it was high time to have a proper school to take the place of the old academies that had been half educating the young people for years. The academies in Spring Mills and nearby Penn Hall and Farmers Mills taught mostly Greek and Latin, with a little history, geography, and algebra thrown in for the more radical students.

In 1917, the Gregg Township Vocational High School took in its first students at the old grange hall. The students were able to take courses in agriculture and housekeeping. A year later, the educational institution moved into the former Robert Smith property overlooking Penns and Sinking creeks. The large brick residence still serves as part of the present Spring Mills Elementary School, although many additions have been made to it over the years.

Just as world politics changed education, the automobile began changing small towns like Spring Mills. People became more mobile, driving out of town to work elsewhere. The trucking industry began bringing in goods faster and cheaper than the railroad could. In the end, highway transportation won out.

Although the town centered around the railroad for a number of years and experienced its fastest growth during that time, the old train station has now vanished but for the ghost of its foundation in the grass and a few crumbling steps leading nowhere.

The railroad tracks were torn up years ago, leaving nothing but a grassy right-of-way pointing the way out of town.But being bypassed by high-speed traffic has helped preserve much of the l 9th-century character of Spring Mills. An old brick spinning mill now houses the community center. Houses from the late Victorian era still stand, most of them with their stained glass windows and gingerbread intact. Several churches, mainstays of the community since the founding of the town, still congregate in the buildings that have barely changed since they were built. Methodist,Presbyterian, and Lutheran denominations dot Spring Mills.

For a Saturday afternoon stroll around Spring Mills, take Route 45 east from Boalsburg for about 15 miles. Although the outskirts go on for a couple of miles, the town itself sits in a little valley of its own, lying just downhill from Route 45. The fishing’s good, too.

THE HEART OF PENNSYLVANIA: Stormstown Story by Susan L. Kerr | Photos by Thomas B. King Excerpt from October 1998 Issue of State College Magazine

Stormstown is the quintessential quiet small town. On a hot summer afternoon, the town’s “main drag” drowses in the yellow sunlight. An occasional car chases the sparrows from the roadway, but only for a moment until the danger has passed and they can return to the middle of the hot asphalt for a noisy argument.

There is more activity during the morning and evening rush hours. The area has become one of the more desirable bedroom communities for residents commuting to State College. Single-family homes spill out of newly opened housing developments, making it necessary to periodically carve new ones from the cornfields.

Stormstown is imbedded in Halfmoon Township, which is itself a throwback to wilder days in central Pennsylvania. Long before any European set foot in Penn’s Woods, native Indians traveling along forest paths would blaze trails with their tomahawks. In parts of Centre and Huntingdon counties, these blazes took the shape of a semicircle or half moon. Thus sprung the community names of Halfmoon Township and Warriors Mark.

In 1784, Abraham Elder struggled through the primeval Pennsylvania forest from Franklin County into what was then a part of Huntingdon County. He found an abandoned cabin in the woods, perhaps vacated by a white family during the Great Runaway just a few years before. After cleaning out the leaves and chasing out the field mice, Elder settled down to see how he liked the area before relocating his family to the wilderness.

The next year, Elder brought his family and their belongings back to the area on horseback. His family included a three-week-old baby born on the trail somewhere. According to old accounts, the baby’s cradle was a hollowed-out section of a log that remained a cherished family heirloom for many years.

EIder and his family settled down in the cabin he had used the previous winter. Abraham then went exploring to find a suitable homestead site for his brother in what is now Patton Township. While they were surveying the area, an irate Irishman who lived near present-day Fillmore accosted them. The wild Celt told them that he didn’t want any neighbors that close to him (five or ten miles away), so they’d just better move along. Elder and his brother decided not to press their luck and returned to a site near the original cabin. This move worked to Elder’s advantage in the years ahead.

He originally farmed in the area. raising grain to be ground into flour at the local grist mill which he also owned. Elder hauled the flour and other produce to Baltimore for a few years until a turnpike was built to Pittsburgh. Whatever grain wasn’t turned into flour was distilled into liquor and sold at the local tavern — another Elder-owned enterprise.

Jacob Storm, a contemporary of Elder’s, also owned farmland in Halfmoon Township and subdivided it into town lots in 1800. Elder’s grist mill, distillery, saw mill, and tavern formed the start of the new business district of the village of Stormstown.

With better transportation, more people started settling in Stormstown. The year the town was founded, George Wilson built the first Quaker meeting- house in the area. But the increasing number of Quakers in the neighborhood didn’t sit very well with current residents — they hacked and burned the first batch of logs Wilson had prepared for the meeting place.

The meetinghouse has been gone for a number of years, but its cemetery is still in use. Family names from the early 1800s appear on old tombstones — and on new mailboxes in the area.

Elder continued to prosper over the years, for his tavern sat beside the increasingly busy turnpike between Bellefonte and points west. The Juniata iron industry shipped its pig iron on horseback and in freight wagons over the road.

Coincidentally, Stormstown was the first stop on the turnpike after leaving Bellefonte.

Abraham Elder gave his old log cabin to George Wilson and then built a fine stone mansion in 1808. He also sold his very profitable tavern to Benjamin Way in 1810. But he remained active in the community and in the business world for many years.

He died some years later in his late 70s and was buried locally. His wife followed him five years later. At this time, Abraham’s coffin was disinterred so that he and his wife could be buried together in the same grave at the new Spruce Creek Presbyterian Church. The lifetime partnership that had brought them into the wilderness together could not be broken up with the coming of civilization.

During the first half of the 19th century, Stormstown was the commercial hub of the township and the valley wound it. The first blacksmith set up shop in 1822. There were also a wagon maker, a weaver, a tanner, a shoemaker, and several other craftsmen. Jacob Lebo is mentioned as being the first storeowner, followed by William Smith. And Roland Curtin & Son, headquartered in Bellefonte, had part of its mercantile empire located in Stormstown.

Bad hick was on its way, though. Early one Sunday in April 1867, a fire broke out new the chimney in Abraham Elder’s old tavern. Within three hours, the central business district of Stormstown was gone. Twenty-six businesses and homes were destroyed, most of them only partially insured. The homes could be rebuilt in time, but lost business could not be recovered. Stormstown languished and never regained its commercial prominence.

A few stone or brick houses from those early days still stand on the fringe of the downtown area. A walk along Route 550 today will take you past a couple of the ones that are still recognizable. Other structures of frame construction date from a time shortly after the fire.

Walking along Route 550 probably isn’t the best family outing in the world. Motorists generally drive at a safe speed, but there are almost no sidewalks through town. Strolling is done on the beam, which is very narrow in most places.

With this in mind, Stormstown still has some nice old houses and former commercial buildings to look at. There are a couple of well-maintained, late Victorian Queen Ann residences standing side by side along the highway. Just down the street, a rustic apartment building bears wooden letters nailed to the siding in 1887 identifying it as the meeting place of the IOOF — the International Order of Odd Fellows.

Near the end of town, closer to Stormy Corners Store, stands a stone mansion with wooden additions at the rear The stone portion was built in stages in the house’s youth, the first part perhaps as early as 1810. At the opposite end of town is a sprawling stucco-covered mansion. Although details have been added over the years, the old Federal house probably has red brick underneath the stucco.

The business district of Stormstown today is a pale shadow of what it was in 1867. There’s an auto shop, maybe a craft store, and there’s Stormy Corners — that’s about it.

But Stormy Corners is worth a look. In the wand tradition of old genera] mercantile stores, the Stormstown emporium carries groceries, antiques, giftware, and provides a good corner for hanging out and getting an informal education. Comfy sofas crouch wound a fireplace.

To get to Stormstown, travel west from State College along U.S. Route 322 for about six miles. Turn left at the blinking signal onto State Route 550/Buffalo Run Road. After a couple of miles, Buffalo Run Road will turn into Halfmoon Valley Road: stay on Halfmoon Valley Road for a couple more miles, and you’ll be in Stormstown.

THE HEART OF PENNSYLVANIA: Spruce Creek Story by Susan L. Kerr | Photos by Thomas B. King Excerpt from November 1998 Issue of State College Magazine

Spruce Creek sits in its own little valley beside the waterway that gives it its name, the pretty stream joining the Little Juniata River near the middle of town.

Like many other little towns in central Pennsylvania, Spruce Creek’s heyday took place during the height of the charcoal-fired iron furnace era. To transport the pig iron from nearby Huntingdon Furnace, a number of privately owned turnpikes were built. Today, Route 45 follows the path of one of them.

The first settlers in the Spruce Creek area were the Berbault brothers, who built a small mill on the banks of the creek to grind locally produced grain in 1775. They were followed by Abraham Sells, who established a tavern in the small village.

The Berbault mills and an accompanying 600 acres were later bought by Jacob Beigle. Beigle’s five sons divided the property among themselves and maintained ownership until 1827 or so. It was around this time that John Isett acquired the property and built more mills, a factory, and a forge on the parcel of land, calling it Stockdale.

The vast iron ore beds east of town spurred the development of many furnaces and related industries early in the 19th century. George Anschutz was one of the first to begin capitalizing on the mineral wealth of the Spruce Creek region. Born in 1753 to German parents in Alsace-Lorraine, he emigrated to the British colonies. Later, he built the first iron furnace in Pittsburgh’s Shady Side area in 1792, but thought the operations unprofitable.

Moving to the Spruce Creek Valley. Anschutz soon partnered with Judge John Groninger and Mordecai Massey to build the first iron stack in the watershed area (Huntingdon Furnace) in 1786. Anschutz provided the know-how. Groninger the working capital, and Massey the real estate.

In 1806, Samuel Marshall found a spot just upstream from the town of Spruce Creek in order to work the furnace’s pig iron into implements for local use. It was at this place that he founded Colerain Forge, now a peaceful picnic spot just off Route 45.

An economic depression following the War of 1812 caused Marshall enough hardship that he sold the forge to Lyon, Shorb and Company sometime between 1819 and 1820.

Many years later in 1832, Anschutz returned to the Pittsburgh area as the main representative of Groninger, Anschutz and Company. By this time, American industry was moving further inland, thanks to better modes of transportation. Juniata pig iron was being shipped to Pittsburgh for further refinement into steel.

At the time of Anschutz, Lyon, and their other cronies, charcoal made from hillside timber fueled the forge and the furnace as it did elsewhere. But some farsighted entrepreneurs had discovered a good supply of coal in Philipsburg. They reasoned that if they could find an economical way to transport it over the mountain to the iron operations, they could realize a small fortune.

Colerain Forge remained a going concern for many years during this time. But with the decline of the Lyon family fortune after a series of bad investments, the forges also went downhill. Eventually, they closed in 1878.

Railroad technology soon became sophisticated enough to allow a single track to be laid over the mountain from Philipsburg to Spruce Creek, and on to Water Street a few short miles further downhill in the 1 840s. Tons of coal were unloaded at Spruce Creek and Huntingdon Furnace, while the rest found its way to coal barges on the Pennsylvania Canal near Alexandria.

During this era, the little valleys around State College were gaining residents. Travel among the prosperous villages became quite commonplace. It was because of the volume of traffic on the turnpike and another road that caused the building of the very first bridge in Spruce Creek. Prospectors on their way to the treasure fields of California passed this way in 1849, according to old records.

The coming of the railroad enabled the little village to expand overnight. Originally, the settlement of Stockdale was on one side of the river, while another, smaller one stood on the other. When the Pennsylvania Railroad built its station in this region, it renamed the depot “Spruce Creek.” The name stuck and this is how the town is still known.

Today, this former industrial hub has recovered most of its original natural beauty. It is this, and the fine trout fishing, that bring visitors to the area.

On the banks of Spruce Creek, the public is allowed to fish at the George W. Harvey Fishing Area, just off Route 45 about a mile west of the village. Anglers are permitted to flyfish year-round with barbless hooks, according to information provided by Linda Vance, a proprietor of Cedar Hill at Spruce Creek Bed and Breakfast.

The vast majority of land along Spruce Creek is privately owned, but public fishing is permitted along the banks of the Juniata River as long as would-be anglers have the proper state licenses. This is just across the road from Cedar Hill on Route 45.

Cedar Hill and Spruce Creek Bed and Breakfast are housed in some of the oldest residences in the village. Cedar Hill is a restored. I 820-vintage, stone farmhouse. Just down the road a few steps, the Spruce Creek B&B occupies the former Isett house.

Spruce Creek Outfitters is located in the riverstone storefront next to the Juniata. Anglers of all abilities and ages can find bait and tackle to fill their needs.

The social centers of the town are the Spruce Creek Tavern and the gas station and convenience store next door. Add the two churches in town and that’s about it for social occasions. However, visitors will find plenty of hiking and biking opportunities in the area’s forests and on the trails through the region.

Spruce Creek is about 25 miles from State College via Route 45 west.

THE HEART OF PENNSYLVANIA: Howard Story by Susan L. Kerr | Photos by Thomas B. King Excerpt from December 1998 Issue of State College Magazine

The story of Howard mirrors that of most small towns in central Pennsylvania. A large portion of its history is covered by Sayer Dam today: but before the Bald Eagle flood control project commenced in the late 1960s, the area’s heritage was already preserved and catalogued for future generations.

The earliest settler in the Howard area was David Delong, who staked a claim to some land there in 1778. Like most prudent Europeans, Delong left the region during the Great Runaway shortly thereafter, but reclaimed his lands in 1784 when the hostilities were over.

Other early landowners in Howard were William Tipton. Roland Curtin, and James Butler.

The actual founding of Howard is uncertain. Some sources say it was founded in 1850 and took its name from John Howard, an early settler: other sources say the Howard post office was commissioned as early as 1828. However, it is pretty certain that Howard was incorporated officially in 1864.

The Bald Eagle Valley was sparsely settled well into the 1820s. There were busy population centers like Milesburg in the region, but a large influx of settlers wasn’t possible until transportation improved. An anecdote from the time says the trees were so thick, it took more than three weeks to cut a road through the forest from Bellefonte to Howard.

Joseph Harris, a son of one of the founders of Bellefonte, had found a rich source of iron ore in eastern Nittany Valley near present-day Jacksonville. Like many other entrepreneurs of the time, Harris decided to go into the iron- making business.

Harris erected his iron furnace near Bald Eagle Creek to take advantage of the nearby waterpower, the iron ore banks, and the approaching Bald Eagle and Spring Creek Navigation Company’s canal that allowed easier transportation of his facility’s products. The furnace went into blast in 1830 under the ownership of Harris, Thomas and Company.

The same year, the first store in the Howard area was opened by a brother of William Packer, who later became a Pennsylvania governor. The store was located on the other side of Bald Eagle Creek, beside what is now U.S. Route 220.

The iron furnace operation was fairly profitable for a number of years, but Harris no longer cared about it after his wife died in 1842. He sold his interest and the company changed hands several times in the next 30 years, slowly deteriorating until it was bought by a very extraordinary man, Bernard Lauth, in 1871.

Lauth is widely held today to be the discoverer of cold-rolled steel. After the metal handle of a steel-making tool was accidentally flattened by a piece of runaway machinery, Lauth realized its potential applications in industrial and consumer goods. Without cold-rolled steel, automobiles and refrigerators would look much different from how they look today — if they were possible at all.

Lauth realized a sizable fortune from his invention. He opened his first rolling mill in Zanesville, Ohio, in 1847, and teamed with a Mr. Jones in Pittsburgh to form Jones and Lauth Steel Co. a few years later. In 1857, Lauth sold his share of that business to a Mr. Laughlin, giving birth to Jones and Laughlin Steel Co.

Lauth took his family abroad during the troubling years of the American Civil War. During that time, he developed three other steel-making processes that later became industry standards.

At the close of hostilities in 1865, Lauth returned to the United States. He still had numerous steel holdings in Pittsburgh that soon needed another source of pig iron. Lauth had heard about the legendary Juniata iron of central Pennsylvania and came to visit and investigate.

Griscom, Bright, and Co. now was in possession of the iron furnace at Howard, but had let the buildings and equipment deteriorate. Griscom. Bright, and Co. happily sold the rundown iron business to Bernard Lauth in 1871. Thus began its golden age.

At the height of the furnace’s productivity, some 200 men worked in various capacities. But by 1890, the furnace was blown out, a victim of obsolescence like its sisters across the state. Area business people tried a number of strategies to attract companies to take the place of the vanished furnace, with varying degrees of success.

The new startup businesses in Howard were generally based on the remains of the iron industry. Jenkin Iron Novelty Manufacturing Co. made mining tools, coke oven hooks, hatchets, and rakes. About the same time, Empire Iron Works made steam engines, boilers, sawmill equipment, and various types of castings.

The next major employer in the Howard area was the clothing industry. A silk mill had existed in the town for quite some time, but it eventually closed when cheaper synthetic fibers almost destroyed the demand for silk.

Hall Brothers of Snow Shoe had a wool mill there at the time of World War II but it was unable to meet the uniform production quotas set by the Department of War. The operation was bought by Volrich. and after the plants made fine boys and men’s wool shins after the war. Woolrich maintained the sewing facilities in Howard and Blanchard until just a few years ago.

Howard seems pretty quiet these days, but at one time it was large enough to support its own newspaper, the Howard Hustler. The town also supported its own high school from 1896 until the last class graduated in 1956. After that, Howard teenagers became students of the Bald Eagle Valley school system. The high school building (the second one on the site was built in 1934 and is now used as an elementary school.

Much of Howard and its history sits in the mud at the bottom of the lake at Sayer Dam, also known as Howard Dam and Blanchard Dam. It was built by the Army Corps of Engineers in the late 1960s to help relieve flooding in downstream communities like Milesburg and Lock Haven. Its construction was not welcomed by area residents at the time: a lot of homes were taken by eminent domain and many lifelong residents lost their family homesteads to the construction and rising waters.

Although not popular when it first came on the scene, the darn created a large lake that provides a wide array of recreational activities in the area. And fun seekers bring hard cash to the merchants of downtown Howard today.

To visit Howard, take U.S. Route 220 from its interchange with U.S. Route 322 east of Port Matilda. Drive through Martha Furnace, Julian, and Unionville until you see the dam and a sign for Howard. Drive across the causeway on the breast of the dam. The town on the far side is Howard, about 23 miles from State College.

Near the marina beside the lake is a small cemetery enclosed by an old-fashioned iron fence. If you step inside the enclosure and look around a bit, you’ll find the final resting place of Bernard Lauth.

THE HEART OF PENNSYLVANIA: Zion Story by Susan L. Kerr | Photos by Thomas B. King Excerpt from January 1999 Issue of State College Magazine

Zion has always been the quintessential farming community. If the townspeople don’t work on farms or own them, then they at least have friends and relatives who do, Mostly, their backyards abut fields dotted with black and white Holsteins. It’s either cows or things to feed cows that are grown in the fields in this part of the county.

Zion was settled rather late for a Centre County town. The original land warrant for the territory around the town was written in 1784, back when Northumberland County stretched from the Susquehanna River to near Clearfield.

John Harbison moved into the neighborhood permanently sometime around 1795, becoming the first recorded settler in what is now Walker Township. Others joined Harbison, building their log cabins and early farmhouses in the cleared forest tracts that soon became fields of corn, hay, and rye. Much later, in 1840, Jacob Pifer built the first honest-to-gosh house in Zion.

Early on, the settlement didn’t have a name of its own. The Lutheran and German Reformed movements built a joint place of worship in 1845 and called it Zion Church, shortly after the town was officially incorporated. The original wooden Zion church building was replaced in 1880 with a fine red brick edifice. Very little else is known about the congregation, for it always sat in the shadow of its better-known elder sister just up the road in Hublersburg.

The winding road that connected Bellefonte, Zion, Hublersburg, Snydertown, and Mill Hall was called Fishing Creek Road in those days. Later, after the state took over the road and removed some of its meandering, the highway became State Route 64. Fishing Creek Road was an important thoroughfare in its day, providing a direct if muddy route between the various iron and farming communities in the valley.

One of the prominent families in the Zion area were the Struble brothers, who had relocated to the fertile parcel from Union County. Although they sold a good portion of their land to a Mr. Clevenstine, the village shoemaker, the Strubles maintained other enterprises in Centre County. The name is still common in the State College area today.

Catherine Baker, who later married a Struble relative, kept a diary for a short time in 1859. This diary is in the possession of a State College Struble descendant, who lent it to the Centre County Historical Society. The short narrative, kept for only a few months, presents a stark snapshot of life in “the good old days.”

Catherine described a peaceful agrarian life during the few summer months she spent working in her uncle’s store in Zion. She told of late frosts damaging crops, of sunny days during the grain harvest, and of a troublesome drought. Then there was the time a traveling photographer came to town taking miniatures of the townspeople.

Catherine also described the sickness of a young child, the inability of the local doctor to cure the youngster, and his eventual death. Miss Baker and a couple of her relatives sat through the night beside the small casket and attended the funeral service shortly thereafter.

She also described her prolonged suffering from a bad toothache. In an attempt to ease her suffering, Catherine’s aunt put creosote on a bit of cotton and placed it on the offending tooth. Evidently her aim wasn’t good, for the creosote inflamed Catherine’s gum before the chemical trickled out of her mouth and down her chin, taking the skin with it.

This drastic treatment, common for the day, didn’t kill the tooth’s nerve as it was supposed to do. Catherine suffered with a toothache for some six weeks before she finally awakened early one Sunday morning, roused the doctor from his bed, and had him pull the offending tooth once and for all. Of course, this was in the days before anesthesia was introduced, so Catherine “made a great noise, but it was soon over.”

During the six-week ordeal with the bad tooth, Catherine continued to attend church faithfully, the local Lutheran and German Reformed congregation. She wrote of how the morning sermon was preached in German, while the evening sermon was given in English, standard procedure for much of rural Pennsylvania in the 19th century.

A couple of decades earlier, a minister from Carlisle arrived in town to establish the Wesleyan African Methodist Episcopal church to meet the spiritual needs of the sizable black population who worked in the iron industry. Later, this congregation would combine with the A.M.B. church in Bellefonte.

Zion never has had a large population. When John Blair Linn was writing his history of Centre and Clinton counties in 1883, Zion boasted 21 homes inhabited by some 65 souls. By the 1950 census, a population boom boosted this number to 84.

But the little burg supported Catherine Baker’s uncle’s store, two blacksmiths, a cabinet maker, one doctor, three churches, and a handful of other necessary merchants. Although most of these old storefronts have vanished, a passerby can still squint at an older building in Zion and see the traces of a place of commerce.

Technology came first to the bigger towns like Bellefonte, State College, and Milesburg. But Zion had telephones in 1909 and street lights in 1919. The Boy Scouts took longer to find the town, only setting up camp in

1948.

Zion today probably looks much as it did in Catherine Baker’s day, only the roads are better. To take a drive through the center of town, take Bishop Street out of Bellefonte. past the high school, and past the entrance to the Bellefonte bypass. Drive straight ahead on Zion Road out into the country, reaching the town limits a few miles further down the highway.

The outskirts of Zion are bigger than the town itself. New housing developments have sprung up at an amazing rate in the past several years.

But this corner of Centre County manages to retain a lot of its agricultural atmosphere.

Downtown Zion itself hasn’t become much bigger since Catherine Baker was a young woman. The Lutheran church has moved into bigger quarters. The original 1882 structure up the street has been converted into apartments and yet still has much of the charm of an old country church. Across the street from the old church stands a row of vintage homes and former stores, freshly turned out in classic Victorian “painted lady’s color schemes. Ornate gingerbread woodwork hangs from the eaves of a number of the buildings.

On the opposite side of the road on the way back to Bellefonte stands a nice late-Victorian home, complete with turret and shutters.

Although Zion never attained the size of Bellefonte, it remains a reminder of how life was in America just a few generations ago.

THE HEART OF PENNSYLVANIA: Colburn Story by Susan L. Kerr | Photos by Thomas B. King Excerpt from February 1999 Issue of State College Magazine

Coburn seems remote and haunted on a cold winter’s afternoon. Maybe it’s the dearth of people walking down the street maybe it’s the abundance of Victorian era houses, gutted of their plaster while their new owners restore them to their former grandeur.

The highway ambling along the nearby creek is Penns Creek Road, the namesake of the dark, icy stream. With its source in Penns Cave between Centre Hall and Spring Mills, Penns Creek was a valuable travel thoroughfare for early settlers. Timber was sometimes floated down the waterway, while during the spring freshets, wooden arks took flour and farm produce to the creek’s mouth near Selinsgrove. But there wasn’t a town on Coburn’s she until decades later.

Coburn is a late corner to the Centre County scene, developed around 1874 as a shipping and distribution point along the Lewisburg and Tyrone Railroad as it was known. The iron horse had a difficult time when it first tried to get into Penns Valley. A couple of rail companies had already abandoned hope before the builders of the Part of the difficulty was the lack of experienced financial investors; the other was the terrain. Swampy and marshy in many spots, low trestles had to be built to take the rails over boggy areas. Near Coburn, two tunnels had to Lewisburg and Tyrone finally succeeded.

James P. Coburn, an Aaronsburg merchant and a director of the successful railroad corporation, made sure that his name was on the new settlement. Formerly, the area was known as The Forks because of the nearby confluence of Penns and Pine creeks.

Coburn was the nearest shipping point for a number of farming towns in Brush and Penns valleys: Millheim, Aaronsburg, Woodward, Madisonburg, and Rebersburg. The coming of the railroad meant bigger markets for the towns’ produce in the big cities. In order to make access to the rail head easier, the Millheim Turnpike Road Company raised $3,300 in 1874 to build a road south from Miliheim to the tiny station town, a distance of two and half miles. This road stills exists — you have to drive on it if you want to go from one town to the other.

At the time, Cobum was just a shipping point with little industry and little activity. There was only one hotel — the Forks House, which served railroad passengers looking for a place to sleep for the night — one store, one tailor shop, and a grain elevator. By the turn of the century, however, Coburn boasted a canning factory that processed all kinds of farm produce — beans, pumpkin, squash, peas, and carrots among them.

The town also boasted a schnitz factory. For the five people in Centre County who have never heard of them, schnitz are peeled, sliced, and dried apples with the texture of soft shoe leather. After being soaked in water or cider for a few hours, schnitz can then be made into pies or Schnitz and Gnepp, a Pennsylvania Dutch dish of apples and dumplings. The Coburn factory processed enough apples for export to the major urban centers of the day.

A number of gristmills operated in the area, although most of them met the usual gristmill demise — fire. However, one can still be seen beside Penns Creek Road as it slides downhill from Coburn toward Woodward. Portions of the millrace and the “tub” for the waterwheel are still visible.

Other establishments included the S.H. Stover soft drink bottling company; a store that offered tobacco, candy, and newspapers to railroad passengers: a general store; a cider press; and a saloon until Prohibition. Lumberjacks would come down from Poe Valley on Saturday nights to drink and carouse at the saloon. The men reportedly fit the image that we all have of lumberjacks: rugged, good-natured, and generous with money and a left hook. They were thirsty enough on Saturday night to walk five miles from Poe Valley and back again.

Evidently, the lumberjacks created enough of a stir that circuit-riding preachers made the rounds of the churches in the valley — and in the lumbering towns, too.

The lumber camps in the woods supplied timber to the many sawmills near the town. After the lumber was planed down into smooth boards and timbers, it was loaded on to rail cars and shipped to either Pittsburgh or Philadelphia. Like many other cities after the Civil War, both cities experienced a major population increase, which in turn spurred the construction business.

One of the larger lumbering villages, and one of Centre County’s best-known ghost towns today, was Poe Mills. Located in a deep gap across from Cobum, the village was still surrounded by thick hardwood forests long after the iron industry had deforested most of the county. During its heyday, Poe Mills boasted 400 residents,

- As the building boom lost steam in the cities, lumbering in Penns Valley waned. The town vanished, but a plaque commemorating its existence could be found at the Poe Paddy picnic area as recently as a few years ago.

The lumbering heritage returned briefly when Poe Paddy hosted a Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) camp around 1933 or so. Staffed by out- of-work but willing young men, these camps paid workers 525 per month and sent another $75 per month home to their families. The CCC camps built a number of the picnic areas, hiking trails, and wooden forest bridges we take for granted in our state parks today.

Today, Coburn still hasn’t regained the grandeur of its lumbering and railroad days. The rails were torn up from their bed around 1970, but the old right- of-way can still be seen near Martin’s Feeds across the iron bridge in town. The old clapboard houses that stood almost on top of the railroad in this part of town are worth a look. Many of them still have two or three porches, one above the other, overlooking the vanished freight yard.

Back across the bridge, in any direction along Penns Creek Road, you will find several blocks of fine old homes at which to gaze. Turning right and heading downstream will take you past a series of nice old “painted ladies,” proper Victorian houses tricked out in at least three colors of paint. If you can, look into their backyards at their former carriage houses.

One won’t find any heavy industries or large stores in Coburn. There are, however, some nice specialty shops and bed and breakfast establishments. The B&Bs have a nice view of the creek, a fact not lost on fishermen.

The one and only street in Cobum sustained some very heavy damage during the January 1996 flood. Many of the houses and shops had creek water filling their first floors and lapping at the second. After a couple of years of cleaning up, the town looks like it is better than ever and open for business.

Penns Creek provides some of the finest wild-trout habitat in the country. Anglers from the valley and much farther away jostle to get their favorite spots on the opening day of trout season, lining the stream banks for several miles.

To get to Coburn, take State Route 45 east until you reach the stoplight in Millheim and turn right on what was once the old Millheim Turnpike. You’ll also probably see the signs posted by a local humorist: Coburn Exit. 2 miles.

When you get to Coburn, you’ll see a convenience store/bait shop/deli on the right. Bear right on to Penns Creek Road and take the lens cap off your camera. You’ll be glad you brought it.

THE HEART OF PENNSYLVANIA: Centre Hall Story by Susan L. Kerr | Photos by Thomas B. King Excerpt from March 1999 Issue of State College Magazine

Most small towns have something that sets them apart visually from other communities. Maybe it’s a certain street lined with beautiful old homes. Maybe it’s the traces of an original town square now disguised by lawns and parking spaces.

The number of churches strung along Pennsylvania Avenue (also known as PA Route 144) in Centre Hall might be this town’s claim to fame. Methodist, Lutheran. Church of Christ — they’re all there. Stately brownstone buildings sit just a block or two from half-timbered brick ones. Stained glass windows and stone ornaments of all kinds raise these churches above the ordinary.

These church buildings are the second- and third-generation structures to house some of these denominations. The history of Centre Hall stretches back to the beginning of the 19th century, when the land it is built on belonged to one prominent man — John Lyon.

William Maclay, an influential Pennsylvanian who became one of the state’s first senators, originally surveyed the Centre Hall parcel in 1774. Lyon married Maclay’s daughter, Jane. After Maclay’s death, she inherited the property from his estate. In those days, a wife’s property reverted to her husband’s control.

After presenting her husband with a son, William Maclay Lyon, Jane died at a relatively early age. John remained a widower for 13 years, eventually remarrying at the age of 40. He and his second wife, a Stewart from Huntingdon County, produced another ten children.

Lyon and his brother-in-law, Robert Stewart, went into the iron business together and became fabulously wealthy. Control of much of the family fortune soon fell to Lyon’s sons after his death.

William Maclay Lyon sold the farm to Christian Hoffer in 1864. Hoffer was a member of one of the more prolific families in that part of Penns Valley at the time. The family name is preserved today in Hoffer Avenue, which marks the eastern border of the Grange Fairgrounds on the outskirts of town.

There had been some sort of settlement in the vicinity for a number of years before the Lyon family owned property there, especially in the Old Fort area near state routes 45 and 144. Another arose at the intersection of state routes 192 and 144.

According to an old account, James Potter built a cabin on a small rise near the Old Fort intersection in 1773 when he was surveying real estate in the area. In 1777, his cabin and a nearby spring were enclosed by a stockade during a period of intense Indian hostility coinciding with the American Revolution.

Potter wrote of an Indian attack on two soldiers on July 24, 1778. Thomas Van Doran and Jacob Shadacre had gone outside the stockade to help some settlers when the Indians attacked the soldiers. Van Doran was shot and killed almost immediately. Shadacre made a run for the stockade and had almost reached safety when his pursuer caught up with him. After a hand-to-hand knife fight, both Shadacre and his Indian opponent died within an arm’s length of one another.

After the Revolution, settlers filtered back into the valleys of central Pennsylvania. A tavern was built in the area sometime around 1801. By 1825, a familiar stone building—originally another tavern, but now a district justice’s office — was erected at the crossroads of routes 45 and 144.

Centre Hall continued to grow, with the first recorded store opening in 1844, followed by a town post office in 1846. Henry Whitmer built a hotel and store in town the same year, choosing a site at the junction of present-day routes 144 and 192, also known as Brush Valley Road. Whitmer’s hotel was a lodging and stage stop for many years until it was finally converted into apartments this century.

This crossroads had sustained a small community for a number of years before Whitmer moved into the area. One of the first recorded buildings was a log schoolhouse, which Whitmer dismantled when he built the hotel.

It was Whitmer who gave the town its name because it was more or less midway between the two ends of Penns Valley- The “hall” designation, some say, came about because it was a polling place for early elections.

The Penns Valley Banking Company and the Progress Grange both became fixtures in town in 1873. The bank still survives in an altered form as the First National Bank of Centre Hall. Progress Grange still has its home in the same building on Pennsylvania Avenue that it has occupied for about a century.

The Grange, originally named the Patrons of Husbandry, held its first gathering in 1874. The three-day event was held on top of Centre Hall Mountain until 1887. After that, the Grange held its increasingly popular fair on property it had purchased on the western outskirts of town.

The Grange annual picnic became the drawing card for hundreds of people in the late I 800s. The railroad ran special trains to bring people to the picnic, which was only three days long at the time. Over the years, the Grange Fair has become a weeklong local institution around which the county’s schools districts plan the start of their school years.

The Grange Fairgrounds is the facility of choice for a number of different gatherings throughout the spring, summer, and fall. Dog shows, horse exhibitions, automobile shows, antiques gatherings — anybody’s hobby is showcased here during the year.

Along Pennsylvania Avenue sits the former rail station, which has been converted into a restaurant. It was in 1884 that Centre Hall Station was founded as a stop on the Lewisburg and Tyroae Railroad. The next year, Centre Hall Station and the town of Centre Hall merged.

Over the years the two villages grew together along the route of the former Centre and Kishacoquillas Turnpike, which connected Lewistown and Bellefonte in 1823. The presence of the turnpike and the urban development along it gave Centre Hall its present configuration.

The town has good retail traffic even today. With a range of merchants, there are plenty of places to drop some cash during a Saturday stroll down the sidewalk. Besides the usual pizza and sub shop. there’s a pretty good sit-down restaurant in the old train station. There’s a family-owned supermarket and a combination meat market/gas station down the street.

There are a couple of antique dealers in town, along with a clock repair shop, an herbalist’s amazing garden and retail outlet, and a knitting and weaving shop to delight the most jaded craftsperson.

To reach Centre Hall, take Route 45 East from Boalsburg. At the traffic signal in Old Fort, turn left on to Route 144 and proceed up the road to town.

THE HEART OF PENNSYLVANIA: Woodward Story by Susan L. Kerr | Photos by Thomas B. King Excerpt from April 1999 Issue of State College Magazine

If you drive out State Route 45 to Lewisburg, you get a real sense of the history of a large part of Centre County. This road was one of the first turnpikes through the middle of the endless forest that covered our region 200 years ago.

The village of Woodward is the last outpost of civilization on Route 45 before you drive through several miles of the Bald Eagle State Forest. In the early years of the 19th century, it must have seemed like the edge of the world.

Although there had been small settlements in the vicinity since before the Revolutionary War, the first real attempt at developing a population center came in 1786. John Motz, a German immigrant, traveled from Snyder County that year and built a gristmill on a stream bank.

Motz was highly educated for his day. Back in his homeland, Motz made his living as a sculptor before his political beliefs clashed with those of the local power brokers. He became a refugee until he found the freedom he was looking for in the midst of the Pennsylvania forests.

Motz turned his hand to many kinds of commercial ventures in the early settlement. His gristmill a success, he went into the tavern keeping business in 1801. He also functioned as the resident financier in the early days, amassing enough hard cash to be able to pay some farmers for their produce, as well as backing any written notes and advancing money to those who needed it. For a time, the tiny settlement was known by the name of “Motz’s Bank.’

As a flourishing, if tiny, trading outpost, Motz’s Bank also had its first store where the locals could spend some of their scarce hard currency, or perhaps barter for some goods. Robert Wolf was said to have kept the first store.

A pottery was located near the town at an early date, too. Daniel Voneida no doubt was a busy man. While at least some of the housewives in town had brought proper dishes with them from their more civilized home areas when they got married, there was always a need for good, sturdy, everyday pottery bowls, jugs, and crocks. Plastic wasn’t going to be available for another 130 years or so, and Frau Muller needed somewhere to keep her milk after the morning milking was done.

Motz and his wife produced a sizable family along the way, perhaps six or seven children. One of them, John Jr. was as energetic as his father. After the elder Motz passed away sometime around 1812, the son took over the numerous family businesses.

In 1814, for example, John Jr. and his mother built the stone tavern building in which today’s Woodward Inn is housed. He also rebuilt the gristmill his father had erected years earlier.

With the growth in population in the area, Motz found lots of customers for his flour. The mill was successful enough to produce more flour than could be used locally. Motz and other merchants in the area began floating their goods down Penns Creek in rafts during the high waters of spring. Their goods reached trading centers as far east as the Susquehanna River, where Penns Creek ends.

Like many of the gristmills in America at the time, fire was always a danger. Motz’s was no exception, burning in 1831. Consumed by the flames was a large quantity of wheat John Motz Jr. had bought on credit. In the days before property insurance, Motzs future looked bleak. However, old friends of his father’s and many of his own pals passed the hat and collected enough money to put him back in business. Motz rebuilt an even larger mill very quickly.

In the early days, the village established a post office with the name of Liberty Mills during the federal period in American history. John Motz Jr. was its first postmaster.

After its life as a dusty crossroads settlement, the collection of houses and stores finally was declared a proper town in 1848. At this time, it was called Taylorsville in honor of General Zachary Taylor, a military hero and U.S. president for a very brief time.

During the ceremonies surrounding his inauguration, Taylor had to stand outside in a freezing downpour. He caught a cold, complications developed, and President Taylor left the White House rather sooner than he planned on—and in a box, yet.

At some period, the town had lost its post office. But Judge George Woodward managed to secure another one for the town. The village residents were so grateful, they changed the name of their town to Woodward in the judge’s honor.

During this time, John Motz Jr. married and settled down, producing a son in short order His name? John Motz III, of course.

Motz III was born in the same family homestead as his father. The young boy had inherited the grit and good business sense of his father and grandfather before him. John Jr. sent him to the Mifflinburg Academy to receive as good an education as could be had in those days—reading, writing, and some arithmetic. Anything more than that and you were putting on airs in the early I 800s.

Motz III was an able student, steadily assuming more responsibility in the family businesses and was already deemed a very able businessman by the tender age of 20.

Motz III had a hand in many of the entrepreneurial ventures in Penns Valley in the middle portion of the 19th century. He was the principle partner in John C. Motz & Company in Millheim, a banking concern. With his ties to the financial world, Motz also became the largest stockholder in the Bellefonte, Aaronsburg, and Youngwomanstown (or Youngmanstown) Turnpike. This important thoroughfare traced at least a portion of what is now State Route 45, but portions of it were abandoned and have vanished into the underbrush.

Today, Woodward may not be a trade and industrial center as it was during the days of the Motz men. A quiet, picturesque village, it still stands as the last town on the outskirts of Penns Valley, right before you and your car enter the darkly wooded Bald Eagle State Forest.

The Woodward Inn is still open, serving a really good meal for a very affordable price. The post office is still the favorite gathering place for the old timers in town. A couple of well-preserved Victorian houses serve as residences and offices. The back streets hold a few secrets, including a Lutheran church that can trace its lineage back to the days of the Evangelical Lutheran congregations of 1871 and 1895.

With spring weather just around the corner, a drive through Penns Valley is perfect on a Sunday afternoon. Pick up Route 45 at Boalsburg and drive straight through Penns Valley, past Old Foil and Spring Mills, Millheim, and Aaronsburg.

After about 30 miles, you’ll see the world-famous Woodward Gymnastics Camp on your right. Go another two miles and slow down. You’re in Woodward and if you’re driving more than 35 miles per hour, you’re breaking the speed limit. You’ll miss most of the downtown, too. And you don’t want to do that.

THE HEART OF PENNSYLVANIA: Snow Shoe Story by Susan L. Kerr | Photos by Thomas B. King Excerpt from May 1999 Issue of State College Magazine

White-trunked birch trees only partially hide the piles of black coal waste surrounding Snow Shoe. The birch is one of the few plants that can grow on the stark, highly acidic “spoil piles.” They are a reminder of the forests that were here long before the white man came to toil at digging the black rocks out of the soil.

The Snow Shoe area was a stopping place on the Chinklacamoose Trail, a Native American thoroughfare running from the Great Island near Lock Haven to present-day Clearfield. A visiting tribe left behind some discarded items, including a worn-out snowshoe. Later, a band of white men found the castoff shoe and named them their stopping place after it. At least that’s the story the old timers have told for a couple of hundred years.

John Bechtol was probably the first permanent settler in the area, sometime around January of 1818. That autumn, Samuel Askey moved into the area and built his cabin nearby. Askey’s descendants live in the Snow Shoe area to this day.

Some of the very early settlers in the region had made note of the presence of coal but regarded it as merely a curiosity. However, in 1819, some hunters again found traces of the black and had samples of it assayed at John Hall’s blacksmith shop in Bellefonte. The rock burned — and Snow Shoe was on its way to becoming a coal mining center.

The veins of coal in the Mountain Top area ranged in thickness from 12 inches to five or six feet in some places. Most of the veins thicker than 21 inches were removed. The thinner ones remain behind today.

At first, mining was limited in scope, supplying only the needs of local residents and businesses. Since central Pennsylvania was relatively isolated geographically at the time, there was no large market for coal for some years.

The first real road over the mountain was developed by Peter Am Karthaus. Karthaus wanted to try his hand at being an ironmaster, so the story goes, and built a charcoal-fired iron furnace in the vicinity. Unfortunately, the iron beds in this part of Centre County weren’t as rich as those in the southern part of the county and Karthaus soon gave up this enterprise. But his road remained an important transportation artery in the near-wilderness.

With an increase in demand for coal, there was a concomitant rise in the need for miners. The local labor market could not provide enough workers, so recruiters went farther field, signing up immigrants almost as soon as they got off the boat.

The foreign workers flowing into the area were mostly from eastern and southern Europe, people from the ethnic salad bowl of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and a hodgepodge of Italian principalities.

As the population increased, so did the demand for modem amenities, like a post office. Originally established as Wessington in 1858, the new post office on the Mountain Top changed its name the next year to Snow Shoe.

There was also a need for more and better housing. This was the middle of the 19th century and the log cabin was still the usual abode for Snow Shoe residents. This began to change with the building of the Snow Shoe Hotel.

The year after, in 1859, the railroad company built the Mountain House, which soon gained fame for its wide porches, large rooms, and impressive staircases. Thanks to the availability of good quality spring water nearby, Snow Shoe became a mountain resort of sorts for several years.

Mountain resorts like Snow Shoe were very important in the days before air conditioning, especially for wealthy city dwellers. Philadelphia and Baltimore can be very steamy and humid in the summer, as can Washington, although it’s steamy year- round there. The wealthy were fond of their summer excursions to the mountains, where the cool, clear air supposedly protected against “summer” illnesses like typhoid and cholera.

And always, coal and the railroads dominated the local scene.

Rail service was so good by 1863 that important state government documents were packed up and sent to the rail office in Snow Shoe for safe keeping until the Confederate onslaught at Gettysburg was turned aside. There was real concern that Lee’s army would advance northward and burn and sack Harrisburg. After Lee was defeated, the papers were moved back to the capital.

Berwind, White and Company came to town in 1881 to cash in on the rich coal veins near Snow Shoe. By this time, it had been found that when coal is heated to a high temperature, gases and other impurities were driven off. The resulting product, coke, would burn for a longer time with a hotter flame for iron and steel makers in Pittsburgh.

The demand for high-grade coke fueled the advance of technology. Coal cars were developed that could be loaded at the mine and then moved to a trestle above the coke ovens. The sides of these cars could be opened, dumping the coal directly into the ovens, eliminating laborious hand shoveling.

Fire clay, found in conjunction with coal in underground mines, also became a profitable commodity in the Mountain Top area. Before World War II, brick factories were a mainstay in the area’s economy. The bricks were used to line the furnaces that changed iron into steel in Pittsburgh and other steel towns.

The Allies’ defeat of Hitler and Tojo spelled the end of economic prosperity for many small towns across Pennsylvania. Snow Shoe was no different. With the richest of her coal seams depleted and a downturn in the need for firebrick, the little town on the mountain lost much of its bustle and some of its population.

In the 60s and 70s, the Keystone Shortway was built across the state. Later dubbed Interstate 80, the four- lane was a mixed blessing. With an exit on its doorstep, development began to expand from downtown Snow Shoe toward the off-ramp. The usual array of gas stations, motels, and fast food joints sprang up; creating jobs for those idled by the slump in the local economy.

I-80 also gave Snow Shoe residents a quicker commute to State College, Bellefonte, and other commercial centers with more jobs. While this meant wages for area residents, it was also a swan song for some hometown businesses.

Today, downtown Snow Shoe still has traces of what made it a thriving town in the past. The coal waste in the underbrush is only one example.

St. Mary’s Roman Catholic Church gives testimony to the brave souls from other lands that came here looking for a better life. While the railroad tracks were torn up some time ago, it is still pretty easy to see the route of the vanished rail bed. A couple of large buildings nearby could be old hotels masquerading as something else. And the town’s municipal building has the outline of a 1890s vintage store.

If you can find I-8O, you can drive to Snow Shoe—it’s only 25 miles or so from State College. Take the four-lane west as far as the Snow Shoe exit. A short drive along State Route 144 will take you into downtown Snow Shoe.

THE HEART OF PENNSYLVANIA: Warriors Mark Story by Susan L. Kerr | Photos by Thomas B. King Excerpt from June 1999 Issue of State College Magazine

Warriors Mark has always been a crossroads community ever since the days of the French and Indian War. With the completion of 1-99 due within the next decade, the tiny Huntingdon County village may again find itself sitting in the middle of a maelstrom of bustle and activity.

The town supposedly takes its name from the markings that Native Americans emblazoned on trees in the area. Crescent and arrow shapes showed the way along forest paths, and according to at least one old chronicler, the markings served as targets for native sharpshooters. Native warriors were said to have spun around in a circle, shooting arrows at rocks placed in the crotches of trees in the woods.

However it got its name. Warriors Mark was already a small forest hamlet in 1768. Comprised of log cabins, the first version of the town slowly disappeared over time, either by fire, the colonial tool of urban redevelopment, or by the breakdown of untreated wood products.

By the time 1821 rolled around, Warriors Mark was formally laid out as a village and sturdier more permanent buildings were erected. Maps from that time already showed the crossroads that is the heart of the town even today. Known as The Corner, the intersection of Route 453 and Route 550 was, and still is, the center of the village’s life.

Route 550 was the main road through Halfmoon Valley from bustling Pennsylvania Furnace just a few miles away. Crossing it is Route 453, the old turnpike that connected Spruce Creek and Philipsburg by way of Huntingdon Furnace and Bald Eagle.

The town itself, still unincorporated, has never had a large population within its boundaries. The average has usually been somewhere between 200 and 275. Within recent years, however, there has been tremendous growth all around it, with a new residential subdivision springing up in yesterday’s cornfield.

But a 19th century clergyman, newly arrived in downtown Warriors Mark, remarked that life was so slow in town that watching a herd of cows marauding through the streets was “exciting.” And 19th century preachers were not known for hyperbole.

Nevertheless. Warriors Mark attracted its fair share of trade and commerce at The Corner One of the mainstays of the crossroads was a large frame tavern and stagecoach stop. Over the years, this same building has also housed the town’s post office, the local telephone company (from which it takes its best-known name of “Exchange Hotel”), and currently several apartments.

Across the street stands a white building surrounded by a large paved parking lot. Now the home of a motorcycle shop, it was an automobile dealership in its prior life. Indeed, “Hamster’s Chevrolet” can still be faintly seen through the fading white paint.

John Lyon, the builder of the mansion and head of the iron-making firm of Lyon, Shorb, and Company, owned property all through the valley, down to Spruce Creek, and part way up the side of Tussey Mountain. Having owned the farm that Centre Hall is built on. Lyon also had a tie to Warriors Mark, although somewhat indirectly.

Lyon’s partner, Anthony Shorb, decided to build himself a large mansion somewhat removed from the soot and grime of Pennsylvania Furnace. He chose a nice plot of ground beside present-day Route 550, just a couple of hundred yards away from The Corner. In 1841, Shorb erected a 19-room dove-gray manor house, now known as the Lowrie Mansion. Shielded from the road by huge, gloomy evergreens, the old house little resembles the home of a rich, fashionable young couple that it once was.

Roberts Lowrie, the son of a Scottish immigrant, studied law at the University of Pennsylvania in the early decades of the 19th century. Passing the bar, Lowrie set up a profitable law practice in Hollidaysburg, then an important inland port on the Pennsylvania Canal.

Lowrie was a fixture on the social scene. Moving in the right circles, he met Mary Lyon, the daughter of the extremely wealthy John Lyon we know so well. Lowrie obviously gained Mary’s father’s approval. The two were married and quickly produced a small daughter.

But even the children of the wealthy often died in infancy in those days, and Mary and Roberts’ little girl was taken from them. The young couple moved from Hollidaysburg to the Shorb mansion in Warriors Mark in 1854, where Roberts provided legal counsel to Lyon, Shorb, and Company.

Roberts helped his brother-in-law William during the terrible financial crisis the firm endured after a railroad investment went bad. Lowrie oversaw the eventual dissolution of Lyon. Shorb, and Company in 1873. To his credit, William Lyon kept the company afloat as long as he could by sacrificing most of his own personal fortune to sustain the firm his father founded.

During this time of high drama, Warriors Mark continued to thrive in its small-town fashion. Although it was still sleepy, the little hamlet was busy enough to keep a variety of businesses going, including a paint factory, a chair maker, a couple of taverns and restaurants, a carriage shop, and two or three physicians.

Mary and Roberts had a son who practiced medicine in his hometown after he came back from medical school in Philadelphia. He and his wife in turn produced three children. It became something of a family tradition to send at least one child into the foreign mission field, with several Lowrie scions serving in China and India.

Today, Warriors Mark probably looks much as it did 70 years ago. The Harpster dealership was there in the early 1920s, and while no cars are sold there today, the building retains much of the flavor of that earlier day. The Exchange Hotel, sporting a fresh coat of white paint and colorful trim, could be mistaken for a stagecoach stop by someone with bad eyesight or a good imagination. Across the street sits a garish convenience-store/gas station — the modern version of the general store in many small American towns.

The main roads that crisscross in the center of town are lined with some nice old houses, including the old Lowrie mansion, still dove-gray and kind of spooky. On the Route 453 side of town, there are a number of older Victorians, complete with “painted lady” and lacy gingerbread detailing. With summer coming, most homes are decked out in their finest flowerbeds.

It’s a nice drive to Warriors Mark from State College, only about 25 miles or so. Take U.S. Route 322 West to the blinking light at Carson’s Comer. Turn left onto Route 550 and follow it for 20 miles or so through Halfmoon Valley. Take your time, admire the scenery, and step back in time.

THE HEART OF PENNSYLVANIA: Axemann Story by Susan L. Kerr | Photos by Thomas B. King Excerpt from July 1999 Issue of State College Magazine

The relocation of State Route 26 has been in the works for a couple of decades. Finally the work has begun that will help alleviate congestion around the Nittany Mall and through Pleasant Gap. The road project has at least one downside: It will change the face of Axemann forever.

A peaceful drive down State Route 144 along Logan Branch has always been a step back in time, steeped in early American industrial heritage. But the Route 26 project has already begun to encroach on the rural character of the area. Earth is being shaped into embankments that will support the deck of a highway bridge over the Axemann area. At least one neighboring farm is for sale, its residents unhappy with imminent construction.

In contrast, the same little valley welcomed industry, bustle, and progress in the early 19th century. The fledgling iron industries in central Pennsylvania were finally starting to turn a profit for their owners.

Better roads made travel more enjoyable and much faster. Consumer products flowed into and out of the area. So did settlers from eastern cities that were becoming crowded by the standards of the day. (It’s a good thing they never saw Philadelphia’s Schuykill Expressway during rush hour.)

These settlers kept pushing back the western frontier beyond the Appalachian Mountains, a heavily forested region with rich soil and abundant mineral resources. Iron tools were in high demand for cutting down all those trees and plowing the soil.

William Mann and his brothers learned the blacksmithing trade from their father in a small town in upstate New York. Unattached and footloose, William left the family nest early and found his way to Bellefonte in 1823. He and another smith went into business together, setting up shop on Logan Branch.

There was no way to avoid hearing about the wonders of the “Juniata iron” being produced in Centre County at the time. Mann began using some of the local stuff and found its high carbon content excellent for forging rakes, scythes — and axes. Harvey Mann soon joined his brother in the making of high quality implements in 1825. Within three years, they struck out on their own and built their first ax factory in the little village of Boiling Spring. The town eventually changed its name to Axemann in honor of the family who influenced several generations of workers and their families.

The ax business was to become a Mann family obsession over the years, for their product developed a reputation for being the best in America, helping make the opening of the West a reality.

Eventually William got the entrepreneurial itch again and relocated to Lewistown, starting the Mann Edge Tool Co., still in business today and operating under the same name.

Meanwhile, Harvey stayed home and ran the Boiling Spring operation until sometime in the 1860s. Harvey was easily sidetracked from the business at hand — making axes. He began neglecting his bread and hurter and the Boiling Springs ax works declined for a time.

Meanwhile, other Mann brothers migrated to Central Pennsylvania. Will is bought an abandoned iron forge in Mackeyville in Clinton County. A younger brother, Robert, trained under his brothers’ tutelage at Lewistown and Mackeyville before he, too, bought an old forge, this one near Mill Hall, and converted it into an ax factory. Yet another brother, Stephen, perhaps with an ax of his own to grind, moved to Tennessee instead and ended up making axes in spite of himself.

Back in Boiling Spring, Harvey passed away leaving the ailing family business in the hands of his son. Harvey Jr. After he, too, passed away, William’s son, Fearon, took the reins and restored the original works to financial health. As pair of the

region’s iron-industry gentry, Fearon played host to the entwined families and offspring of the Lyons, Irvins, Valentines, and Thompsons.

The Mann family drama was played out against the backdrop of the growth and development of Centre County in the 19th century.

Be fore William Mann set foot in Boiling Spring, there was at least a small hamlet or settlement on the banks of Logan Branch. Early in this period, a settler wrote of’ brandishing torches at the wolves who collected around his door and howled in the night. As a side note, experts say no self-respecting wolf would he caught dead hanging around a cabin like that. Maybe the writer heard a coyote instead.)

A trail or bridle path wound through the woods beside Logan Branch, eventually becoming a turnpike in 1852. The Boalsburg and Bellefonte Turnpike Company wanted to build a proper road that would intersect with the existing Centre and Kishacoquillas Pike that led over Seven Mountains to Reedsville and Lewistown. The highway connection expedited trade and commerce, much as it does today.

Better transportation allowed more people to move into the area, giving the local iron industries a bigger labor pool, a boon to an industry that was very labor intensive. While workers often would walk several miles each day to get to work, they often clustered in small communities near the furnaces, forges, and factories. Their wages made consumer goods more affordable and by 1829 there was a store in downtown Boiling Spring. The building it occupied can still be identified in Axemann by a small plaque beside the front door.

In fact, the little town probably still looks much as it did during the time of the Mann brothers and their contemporaries. Several large stone houses, a few of them worthy of the ‘mansion” label, still line Route 144. For the most part they’re in good repair, giving a glimpse of what life was like for the iron barons.

A couple of the old buildings are five or six bays wide and face the former turnpike. A number of older rowhouses in the general area have been converted into apartments. Three or four of these front an open, grassy area, possibly a long-vanished town square or market area. It’s quite possible that these were workers’ houses during the heyday of ax making.

While it’s hard to identify any structures that scream, “ax factory,” the outlines of some old foundations near Logan Branch look suspicious. Linn’s 1877 history of Centre County mentions a fairly large industrial complex about 100 yards from the “Boiling Spring” on the banks of the stream that included two forges, a finishing shop, and a grinding shop. The foundation lines are in the right place for these buildings.

Before you head to the historical society’s library and museum in Bellefonte, take a drive through Axemann to get your bearings — and to enjoy the scenery. While the Route 26 construction probably won’t threaten many historical sites, the Axemann skyline just won’t look the same with a four-lane highway bridge in the way.

To get to Axemann, take Route 26 from State College to the traffic light in Pleasant Gap. Turn left and wend your way down Route 144 for a couple of miles until you see the sign for Axemann. Slow down and gawk if there isn’t anyone following you, but keep an eye out for construction vehicles.

Better yet, pick a sunny day, get a good parking spot, and take a quiet stroll. The exercise and the sights will refresh you before you face to the all- day traffic jam in “the Gap.”

THE HEART OF PENNSYLVANIA: Potters Mills Story by Susan L. Kerr | Photos by Thomas B. King Excerpt from August 1999 Issue of State College Magazine

“By heavens, Thompson, I have discovered an empire.” James Potter already recognized the potential of the Centre County region when he first laid eyes on the countryside surrounding Mount Nittany in 1764. Within 25 years, Potter had indeed founded a frontier empire.

Potter was a captain in the British Provincial army at the time. After several missions to western Pennsylvania, he was posted to Fort Augusta, an important outpost at the confluence of the north and west branches of the Susquehanna River. We know it today as Sunbury.

Potter remembered the territory he had recently passed through and decided to take a leave of absence in order to retrace his steps. The pilgrimage eventually brought him to the summit of the mountain.

In time, Potter staked out land for himself in the valley and built a home near present day Old Fort. During the Indian hostilities during the time of the Revolutionary War, Potter’s house was fortified. His grandson christened the surrounding area “Old Fort” years later.

It was during the Revolution that Potter was named a brigadier general in the Pennsylvania militia, serving with George Washington’s troops in the Philadelphia area. He also shared in the miseries of the winter at Valley Forge.

After the war was over, Potter returned to central Pennsylvania and resumed building his empire. In 1788 he built a large log house near a path that led over the Seven Mountains.

But Potter lived only a year after this. Sometime in the early autumn of 1789, Potter was helping raise a barn near present-day State Route 45. He misjudged his own strength and lifted a heavy timber, resulting in a severe hernia.

The local medical providers did the best they could for him, but the injury didn’t heal. Several weeks went by and Potter’s condition worsened. He was loaded into a wagon for a long, rough trip over the trails toward Franklin County to see a trained doctor. Potter never made it. He died along the trail.

He left behind a family that included two sons. James Jr. and John, who went on to build on what their father had left them. James Jr., who would become a judge in the new county, built a home in the vicinity of the little roadside settlement.

The village had a good location near the old bridle path and wagon road. By the 1790s, the turnpike-building era began. Several turnpike companies improved the roads through Potter’s Bank, as the settlement was known, with the Philadelphia and Erie Turnpike having the most impact in the region. This roadway crossed the Seven Mountains, passed through Potter’s Bank, eventually reaching Bellefonte before it swung northward through the forests to Lake Erie.

The Potter brothers established a stone gristmill, a woolen mill, a store, a tavern, and a few other businesses in the area. Their father’s large log house was converted into an inn that sheltered and fed weary travelers. Around 1824, the brothers built a brick hotel.

The hotel was famous across the state in those days for the quality of the hospitality it offered. Known today as the Eutaw House, the inn was visited by future President James Buchanan. Edgar Allan Poe supposedly stopped there, as well. At the time, there was a large clan of Poes living in the surrounding area, lending their name to Poe Valley and Poe Mills. To add to the romance of the tale, Poe was said to have written “The Raven” while staying at the inn. It’s impossible to know for sure if Edgar really did, and that just adds to the Eutaw House’s mystique.

John Coverly, a person as colorful as Poe in his own way, was hired by the Potters to oversee the new hotel, He was known as “Roger.” a reference to an old English tune. “Sir Roger de Coverly.” that inspired a dance very much like our own “Virginia Reel.”

Roger was known for his hospitality and ability to put a spectacular meal on the table for travel-stained stagecoach passengers. He was even better known for his outrageous sense of humor. One of Coverly’s favorite pranks was to lead visitors to believe that he was James Potter. Potter confronted him about this several times, but Coverly just answered that he was a poor hard-working man and needed to have some fun whenever he could find it.

Coverly found some more fun while visiting southeastern Pennsylvania. While sitting with sonic drinking companions at an inn, a man casually mentioned that his friend knew Coverly and said he was a wonderful host. Never revealing his true identity, Coverly pretended to disagree, saying all kinds of terrible thing about this “Roger Coverly fellow.” Quite some time later, the drinking companion found out whom he had been talking to. Coverly was known afterward as the “infernalist liar.”

The Potter empire prospered until 1848, The nation was experiencing an economic depression after the Mexican War. James and John Potter did all that they could to preserve what they and their father had wrested from the world, but it wasn’t enough. Sliding toward bankruptcy, they were given a few weeks to settle their affairs. About £6,000 short a lot of money in those days the Potters lost all the mills, the inn, the store, and their homes to the auctioneer.

It was after this time that the town changed its name to Potter’s Mills.

The village remains much the same as it must have been in those days. The roads have seen some changes and the Eutaw House has had some additions tacked on to it. There’s still a Potter’s Mills General Store — selling gasoline and convenience-store items instead of horse feed and washboards. General Potter’s Farm is now a bed and breakfast.

Time has laid a gentle hand on the little crossroads town, the center of Potter’s empire. Nestled in the foothills of the Seven Mountains, several buildings dating to the 1800s are still in use.

Saturday is a good time to take a drive out to Potter’s Mills. Estate auctions are common in the area, while a well-stocked antiques store stands beside State Route 144. Later in the day, make dinner reservations for the Eutaw House.

Good food and elegant entertainment haven’t gone out of style there in the last 150 years.

You can find Potter’s Mills at the junction of U.S. Route 322 and State Route 144.

THE HEART OF PENNSYLVANIA: Shingletown Story by Susan L. Kerr | Photos by Thomas B. King Excerpt from September 1999 Issue of State College Magazine

Shingletown is still the same small, picturesque village that it was in the 1 9th century. Never having more than 20 or 25 buildings, the village got a late start as a trade and agriculture center. It was prosperous for a brief time in its early years, but didn’t attract the commerce and industry of the towns around it. Shingletown gives us a snapshot of what most of rural America looked like in the past — a few houses, maybe a couple of mills, an inn, a school, and very little else. The presence of a couple of log structures along Route 45 may be mementos, too.

The land it occupies is part of the original tract of land claimed by Reuben Haines sometime around 1767. Haines was a rich Philadelphia brewer and entrepreneur who commissioned many internal improvements, including the building of some of the first roads.

The small stream tumbling down from the mountain ridges above Shingletown provided adequate waterpower for the gristmill and sawmill that were once found in the town. John Shingle started the mills and built the first home in the area sometime around 1820. For a short time, the little burg bustled and prospered. But Shingletown lost its mills to a devastating fire in 1844. While another sawmill was later built nearby, the hamlet never fully recovered.

The town had a hotel of sorts, the Bush House, but it seemed to have been mainly a residential hotel, not catering to travelers. For a time, Phillips and Glassgow maintained an auction house on the lower floor.

One building served as both church and schoolhouse, a common practice in early America. Not much is known about the church congregation in town, not even its denominational affiliation, if there were one.

While not much has happened in Shingletown since its founding, it serves as a focal point for what was going on around it at the time. Situated in Harris Township, the village served as a convenient stopping place between Boalsburg and Pine Grove Mills. This makes its absence of traditional tavern hospitality even more of a puzzle.

Both Boalsburg and Pine Grove Mills were important trading and travel centers at the time, boasting high-quality and well-known academies. Perhaps their importance drained vitality from Shingletown.

Harris Township itself has always been somewhat pastoral in comparison to its neighbors. It was formed from pieces of Ferguson. Spring, and Potter townships in 1835, but it lost even this ground in 1875 when College Township was carved out of it. The other townships have become increasingly urban, especially in the past 15 to 20 years, but Harris has maintained its “green” character, barring a housing development or two.

The township takes its name from James Harris, one of the founders of Bellefonte. Born in Lebanon County, Harris became the deputy surveyor for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, measuring much of Central Pennsylvania before becoming a state senator, Harris produced several children, one of whom became a respected engineer instrumental in the surveying and construction of the Pennsylvania Canal and the Allegheny Portage Railroad, miracles of technological innovation in their day.

While the rest of the world swirled into the industrial age, Shingletown remained a calm center. The mountains above the village are tree-covered today, offering wonderful hiking opportunities to nature lovers. But 150 years ago, the hillsides were barren. deforested by colliers making charcoal to fuel the nearby iron furnaces.

The ridges above Shingletown may have been part of the holdings of Lyon, Shorb and Company in Pennsylvania Furnace. The iron giant held some land on the mountain for a while, but soon found out that the property had little promise.

A hike up the mountain near Shingletown Gap today will take an explorer past a charcoal flat or two. The flats were scraped out of the hillside and leveled off, creating a platform where the colliers could stack wood, cover it with earth, and

set fire to it in a controlled blaze. This was a job for experts — too hot a fire would completely burn the wood to useless ash, while a slow tire would only scorch the logs. Just the right combination of flame and oxygen drove off water and other undesirable materials, leaving behind an efficient, high-carbon fuel.

The hills above Shingletown also provided good building lumber, which found its way downhill to the sawmill. The lumber was most likely used for local construction, since shipping it by the turnpike would have been expensive.

Shingletown today isn’t much larger than it was in its heyday. There’s no longer a school in town, and the only visible business is a landscaping firm on one of the back streets.

But it is peaceful, the last glimpse of civilization before a hiker heads up Shingletown Gap to commune with nature. The Shingletown Reservoir has been an important source of water for Harris Township in the past. so it pays to be careful not to damage or pollute the ground and surface water around it.

High up on the ridge, the boulders define the mountaintop. Some of the rocks are the size of small automobiles, so it really is one of the miracles of nature that mountain laurel can find a foothold there. The footing is better nearer the reservoir for day hikers.

If you feel like taking a short journey to Shingletown, take U.S. Route 322 from State college to the first light in Boalsburg, before you get to the Military Museum. Turn left on Route 45 and drive toward Pine Grove Mills. Within a couple of miles you’ll see the sign for Shingletown. Park safely and then browse around town or take a short hike up Shingletown Gap. It’s gorgeous when the leaves are turning.

THE HEART OF PENNSYLVANIA: Hublersburg Story by Susan L. Kerr | Photos by Thomas B. King Excerpt from October 1999 Issue of State College Magazine

For most of us, Hublersburg lies off the beaten path. Route 64 bypasses the small community, hurrying motorists on their way to Lock Haven and beyond. But early in its history, Hublersburg was an important coach stop and commercial center.

The surveys in this area of Walker Township were completed sometime in the l770s. But until 1812 or so, Hublersburg and its neighborhood were truly the frontier. About this time, the first permanent settlers drifted into the region and set up a small hamlet. The very first of them was the McEwen family.

It was in this same year that the first recorded business was established in the region. Samuel McKinney built a mill for carding and spinning wool just east of what would become Hublersburg. McKinney had enlisted during the War of 1812 and served with Commodore Perry’s fleet. In his later years, he vowed that cannonballs made of central Pennsylvania iron were directly responsible for the defeat of the British fleet on Lake Erie.

Later in the century, his son, Isaac, would go into the iron making business near today’s Hecla. Although no one knows how successful the elder McKinney was in the carding mill business, the younger man sold his stake in Hecla Furnace for a handsome sum, becoming a notable gentleman of leisure in the mid-1800s.

Henry McEwen was a true pioneer in Walker Township. His father, a Revolutionary War veteran, had married a niece of the Centre County entrepreneur, Andrew Boggs. McEwen settled near present day Hublersburg, producing several children while carving a farm clearing out of the dense forest. His homestead was virtually the clearing in the trees for 20 years.

By 1832, there was a road of sorts through the trees, connecting Bellefonte with Lock Haven. John Felmle established a store a couple of years earlier in a small log cabin he had built among the evergreens covering the area at the time.

In 1832, Jacob Hubler found his way to McEwen’s little settlement and bought a sizable parcel of land, dividing it into town lots. With the establishment of a tavern in 1835 (which is still in business as the Hublersburg Hotel), the little town had begun to make its mark. Within a few years, the hamlet changed its name from Hublersville, in honor of Jacob Hubler, to the more American-sounding Hublersburg.

The town’s post office was established in 1839; the following year, the Presbyterian church was built. As the population soared to a crowded high of about 170 people, a bigger school replaced the little one in the woods.

In the backwoods communities of early America, the schoolmasters were often drunk, tyrannical, nearly illiterate, and unfit for anything but teaching. They frequently swore in the classroom and kept a flask of whiskey within arm’s reach.

Surly and under the influence of alcohol, the teachers made frequent use of the rod, often punishing a whole class for the minor infraction of one schoolboy. This gentle practice probably did more to incite “locking out” episodes than youthful high spirits. The students would wait until the teacher went outside to answer the call of nature, and then board the doors and windows shut. The teacher was kept outside until he conceded defeat and granted concessions.

The lack of a modern education didn’t stop young men from attaining success in those days. By 1882, there were two general stores in town; an Evangelical and a German Reformed church had joined the Presbyterians in ministering to souls; and two blacksmiths, a foundry and machine shop, and two cobblers lined the streets.

Like many small towns in Centre County, Hublersburg had a community band. It was during a fundraiser for the drum corps that ice cream was first served in town, This tasty dessert swept the farming community, for ice cream was a new way to use what the people always had an abundance of: milk, eggs, and sweetener.

Iron ore was found nearby and helped fuel further development, especially the furnace that had been put into blast in Hecla just down the road. By 1888, a railroad line was built to serve the community. The Central Railroad of Pennsylvania hauled mostly iron ore and passengers. Eventually, though, the line became less and less profitable, ceasing operations in 1918. No railroad has ever expressed interest in resuming service.

As the iron industry waned and the highway was rerouted to bypass the town, Hublersburg was no longer the commercial hub that it once was. However, a strong community spirit kept the town alive. The former schoolhouse, the Wolf School, had closed when compulsory public education consolidated several smaller schools into the Walker Township school district. The empty building was acquired by the Walker Township Grange and once again became a source of activity and entertainment for the community. Although the National Grange has lost some of the clout it once had in rural areas, the Walker Township group still maintains its building, which stands in Hublersburg to this day.

The Hublersburg Hotel, once a bustling stagecoach stop, still stands beside the former turnpike through town. Although it doesn’t cater to weary travelers as it once did, the tavern still offers food and beverage to those who seek it out.

As the Scotch-Irish segment of the population migrated westward, the old Presbyterian church lost membership and finally closed its doors. However, after changing hands and identities a few times, the church building is still in use today as a residence.

The Evangelical and German Reformed congregations merged in the late 1800s. The German-speaking congregations soon attracted English- speaking churchgoers. For many years, sermons were delivered in both languages on alternating Sundays. Sometimes, though, the same sermon was delivered twice on the same day — first in German and then in English. This practice was eventually discontinued when the German language was superceded by English.

Trinity Reformed Church stills stand in Hublersburg, although it is now known as the United Church of Christ. But a hint of its earlier life can be found in the front entry’s stained glass transom. Hublersburg is a pleasant 25 miles away from State College on Route 64, going north toward Lock Haven. Keep a sharp eye out for the road signs pointing to Mingoville and Hecla Park. A couple of miles further up Route 64, the sign for the village for Hublersburg appears on the right. A few hundred yards of cornfield pass by before the town limits are reached.

A short stroll through Hublersburg on a crisp autumn afternoon is not to be missed.

THE HEART OF PENNSYLVANIA: Pine Grove Hills Story by Susan L. Kerr | Photos by Thomas B. King Excerpt from November 1999 Issue of State College Magazine

After taking photographs and gathering information for “The Heart of Pennsylvania” for the past couple of years, I’ve found that a good place to start is usually the town post office. In a small town, the postmaster usually knows what’s happening and who could be a source of information. So when I went to Pine Grove Mills, the post office was my first stop. Postmaster Regina McDaniel was most helpful. She suggested that I contact one of the town’s former postmasters, George Lauck.

George is a guy with an interest in this town. He was born and raised here, and he keeps up-to-date on all things that relate to the town. He has the names and years of all the men and women who have served as postmasters in the town since the first post office was opened in 1809. They include George’s father, George Lauck, Sr., who served as postmaster for 23 years beginning in 1939.

George Jr. succeeded his father as postmaster in 1962. He says his appointment commission was on President John Kennedy’s desk waiting to be signed when the president was assassinated. As a result, his commission bears the signature of Lyndon Johnson instead.

George Jr. and his wife reside on Chestnut Street in a house built by his uncle, Charles Lauck, in 1929 the year that Penn State’s Old Main building was rebuilt. In fact, Charles Lauck used maple lumber from the original Old Main to build the floor’s house.

Charles sold the house to the town dentist, Joseph Hummer, who practiced dentistry for 45 years. Hummer came from Philadelphia to Penn State to study horticulture. In his senior year, he enlisted in the Army cavalry troop that was being organized at Boalsburg. This troop served in France with the 28th Division in World War I. While in France, the Army cited Joe Hummer for actions of bravery several times. He was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross for meritorious bravery overseas. Upon leaving the service he qualified to receive vocational training for disability from wounds inflicted during the war. When he recuperated, he became a dental student at Temple University. George Lauck, Jr. acquired the house from Dr. Hummer.

How did Pine Grove Mills get its name? When I asked George, he supplied me with historical records dating back to the 18th century, when Thomas Ferguson traveled into the area and first saw the broad valley between Tussey Mountain and the Barrons. Because of a stream that flowed down from the mountain, Ferguson decided the place would be an ideal spot to build a mill wheel and develop a village. Records say that Ferguson purchased 321 acres for 300 pounds. Looking at the beautiful stand of pine trees in the area and what appeared to be productive soil, he planned a town, marked the lots, and built a gristmill in 1800. He gave parceled lots to some of his friends and sold land to others.

Ferguson and his wife had a daughter, Jane. She married William Huston and they had two children born in 1780 and 1782. Legend has it that natives killed William while on a trip over the mountain to what is now McAlevy’s Fort. Jane then married an Irishman. John Barrow. He built a gristmill, too. So the people lengthened the name of the village from Pine Grove to Pine Grove Mills.

The gristmill that stood where Myers Texaco station is now located burned in 1929. The millpond, which was located a block and a half up Water Street and provided a steady supply of water to power the mill wheel (not to mention a place to swim in summer and skate in winter) was filled with earth in 1940. Today, a residence occupies that space.

In the early part of the 19th century, several towns in the Centre County region hosted iron furnaces. Pine Grove Mills was no exception. In 1810, William Patton, a son of Colonel John Patton, built Tussey Furnace at Pine Grove Mills. The furnace was short lived, lasting only until 1815. But just west of town at the Centre-Huntingdon County line, a furnace called Pennsylvania Furnace was built, which was at one time the largest iron furnace in the state.

During this time, there were three religious denominations active in the village of Pine Grove Mills: Presbyterian, German Reformed, and Lutheran. Each wanted a place to worship and a school for their children. In 1 831, the religious leaders banded together and bought an acre of land for a meetinghouse, a school, and a burial site. By 1832, their Union Meeting House was built and used for school, town business, and worship services with the three congregations alternating services.

In 1855 the Presbyterians decided to build their own church. For one silver dollar they bought land from the Ferguson family. The lumber was hewn by hand, and at a cost of $3,600, the church was completed in 1857. Then, the Lutheran and Reformed denominations tore down the old Union building and jointly erected the Salem Church, which was dedicated in 1858. The Lutherans owned two-thirds and the Reformeds one-third. In 1888, the Lutherans bought out the Reformeds share for $600, which the Reformeds used to build the Bethel Church in the eastern end of Pine Grove Mills.

Today, Presbyterian and Lutheran churches still stand in the center of town on Pine Grove Road between Kirk Street and Mayes Street, with the Union Cemetery between them. In recent years, the Lutherans built a new church on the west end of town and sold their old church to an Anglican parish from State College — now St. Alban’s Anglican Church. The cemetery contains the graves of many of the early settlers. The last burial there was in 1903.

Prior to the demolition of the Union building, which had served as the town’s school as well as a church and town meeting hall, towns’ leaders decided its youth needed a more appropriate school building. In 1852, the two-story Pine Grove Academy was built and a principal was hired. As many as 85 students attended the academy in one year. Former Pennsylvania Governor James Beaver was a student there.

During the Civil War, when the states were recruiting volunteers, the Academy’s Professor Thomas and several of his students enlisted and served in General James Beaver’s 48th Pennsylvania Volunteers. Professor Thomas and two of his students, Ruben Reed and Daniel Musser lost their lives in that war.

The present Ferguson Township School was built in 1932, when several local one-room schools in the area were abandoned. The schools that were consolidated included Kepler, Glades, Baileyville, Centre, Oak Grove, and Krumrine. The consolidated Ferguson Township School on the west end of town was used as both an elementary and junior high school for its first 18 years. Since then, it’s been an elementary school.

The Kepler school closed prior to 1932. George Lauck’s neighbor, Royal Kline, tore down that school and used the lumber to build his house. Royal, now 98 years old and a legendary figure in Pine Grove Mills, still lives in the house. Although he’s the town’s oldest living resident, Royal’s mind is as sharp as a tack.

The history of Pine Grove Mills would not be complete without some commentary about Royal. Although his hearing and eyesight aren’t quite what they once were, he’s still an easy person to converse with. Royal was born at Penn’s Cave. He moved with his family to Pine Grove Mills in 1916 when his father established a stave mill within a stone’s throw of where Royal now lives. The staves were made from chestnut and shipped off to make wooden kegs. The kegs were used all across the country for nails, bolts, horseshoes, or any product that required a strong, rigid container. During World War I, Royal says he and his sister, Helen, worked 10 hours a day at the mill.

In 1921, Royal’s father, James, and his brother-in-law, Charles Stuck, opened a garage in the old coach shop on the corner of Nixon and Pine Grove Roads. Royal worked at the garage. He says that when they started the business, they sold gas out of a barrel until they could afford to buy a gravity pump. In 1924, Royal bought out his Uncle Charlie’s share of the garage and it became the 3. F. Kline & Son business. Today Royal’s nephew, Mark, operates the garage.Royal says his Uncle Charlie moved to McClure, in Snyder County. He took with him Teddy, the best groundhog dog Royal has ever hunted with. Back then, hunting groundhogs was an important part of the life in small towns like Pine Grove Mills. Seeing Teddy depart was a real loss for Royal. The loss wasn’t permanent. Within a couple of weeks, Teddy was hack. On his own, Teddy walked all the way from Snyder County back to Pine Grove Mills, and Royal enjoyed his companionship and hunting prowess for several years.

Individuals like George Lauek and Royal Kline are important links connecting the past with the present. A person like George knows the value of keeping records and pictures and willingly sharing them with others. Folks like Royal pass on information in the oral tradition. Neither is reluctant to share.

THE HEART OF PENNSYLVANIA: Houserville

Story by Susan L. Kerr | Photos by Thomas B. King Excerpt from December 1999 Issue of State College Magazine

It was before George Washington became our first President and before Pennsylvania had its first governor that Jacob Rouser made his first trip from Dauphin County to what is now Houserville. Jacob was a millwright who made “overshot” or bucket water wheels for mills to capture the power of running water and use it to produce the torque necessary for turning the cutting blade of a sawmill or the grinding wheel of a gristmill. On this initial trip into the area, he undoubtedly encountered General Potter’s settlement at what is now Potter’s Mills. But he traveled further west until he came to the stream we now call Spring Creek. It stands to reason that he saw Spring Creek as the source of power for his water wheels.

In 1774, Caleb Jones surveyed this land for Josiah Matlack. Jacob Houser then purchased 374 acres of forestland on either side of Spring Creek. He cleared six acres and built a log cabin. In 1788, he brought his wife, Barbara, and their first child from Dauphin County to reside in their new home along the banks of Spring Creek.

Jacob was an enterprising individual. The first summer he built a sawmill. The next year he built a gristmill. To use water wheels of the type Jacob made requires a steady, reliable supply of water. In those days, a millrace provided that water supply. And because streams are seldom consistent in their water flow, a dam was often built to furnish the race with water all seasons of the year.

Jacob was not the first settler along Spring Creek. A Scotch-Irishman named Robert Moore lived above him on the stream. The dam built to feed water into the millrace backed onto Moore’s property — especially during spring floods. This, along with a squabble over property lines, created constant friction between the two neighbors. When Moore died, his family honored his request to be buried on his property line so that he could “keep the damned Dutch off my land.’

Jacob Housers endeavors prospered. He and his family soon left the cabin and moved into a house he had built. A few years after building the gristmill, he built what was called in those days a “fulling mill” with a carding machine for processing wool. In 1802, a fire destroyed the gristmill and damaged the nearby sawmill and fulling mill. The sawmill was repaired and converted into a school, for by then there were several children in the area that needed access to a school. The fulling mill was rebuilt a half mile downstream and eventually was enlarged to become a complete woolen factory. Jacob’s son, Daniel, rebuilt the gristmill in 1836.

Houser’s mills attracted workers into the settlement along Spring Creek. In the early days of the village, residents had to travel to Curtin to purchase supplies and staples. Soon, a store was established in the village. At the time, a blacksmith shop, a wagon maker’s shop, a paint shop, a small tannery, a cooper shop, and a harness and shoe shop found a place in the life of the growing town. A second store, operated by Luther Houser, opened but was destroyed by a fire. Later, Jacob’s grandson, Christ Houser, opened a store. In 1870, the town’s first post office became part of the store. This store continued until 1923; but the post office closed in 1902, when mail was delivered from Lemont.

When the sawmill school that started in 1802 became outmoded. Jacob Houser gave 60 perches of land for a school and burial ground. Cemeteries have a way of lasting longer than buildings. The school that stood beside the cemetery is long gone. It was replaced in the 1860s by another one-room school located at the corner of Houserville and Puddintown Roads, next to the Reformed Church. This school was used until 1939, when College Township schools consolidated and moved to Lemont. The cemetery remains as a prominent landmark. It is the second oldest cemetery in College Township and the site of a traditional Memorial Day Service each year. Jacob and Barbara Houser’s gravestones (and the gravestones of many of their offspring) are located in the old section of the cemetery beside the United Methodist church on Houserville Road.

Of the various business enterprises that once flourished in Houserville, the woolen mill probably played the most significant role. The second wooden mill built by Jacob Houser was destroyed by a fire in 1849. A third mill was constructed on the same site. This mill was managed by Jacob, Jr., who modernized it by installing two large blanket looms, four cloth weaving looms, and other necessary carding and spinning equipment. The mill specialized in the weaving

of blankets, yard goods, and yarns. Carded wool was also sold to home spinners. Wool wagons were built, loaded with woolen goods and driven throughout the area where the goods were sold or traded to farmers for fleeces shorn from their sheep. Too far north to grow cotton, and before the days of synthetic fibers, wool was the fiber produced on many Pennsylvania farms. A warehouse was built near the factory to store the wool. Here raw wool was scoured and dyed. Surplus wool was sold to a company in Baltimore.

The woolen mill was a big business for Houserville, but it became difficult to get enough water from the millrace to power both the woolen mill and the flourmill. When water was needed to operate the three-hopper gristmill at full capacity, there was not enough water in the race to power the woolen mill. So after more than a century of operation, and interruptions by two fires, the mill was closed down about 1912. Today there are no visible signs that a woolen mill and warehouse once flourished in Houserville.

Over the past two centuries. Houserville has moved in two directions. During its first century, it grew and prospered as a mill and farming community. When Jacob Houser and Robert Moore elected to settle there, it was forestland. The trees were cut down to provide lumber for buildings or to feed nearby Centre Furnace with charcoal. Portions of the various mills and shops that once thrived are still standing, but by and large they have been converted into dwellings. Currently there is not a store, restaurant, service station, or other walk-in business establishment (except for a beauty parlor) in the town. If you were to query the residents, most would express satisfaction with their noncommercial village. It’s a bit of a rarity for a town with such a long-lived past.

©Copyright 2007 King Publishing, LLC

Additional History Day Info Supplemental Articles

Centre County Historical Organizations and Sites

Centre County Historical Society Centre Furnace Mansion 1001 E. College Ave. State College, PA 16801 234-4779 www.centrecountyhistory.org Angela Breeden, Executive Director Boalsburg Heritage Museum Assoc. East Main Street & Loop Road Boalsburg, PA 16827 466-3035 or 466-7386 Earl Kesler, President Boal Mansion and Columbus Chapel US. Route 322 (Business) Boalsburg, PA 16827 466-6210 www.boalmuseum.com Christopher Lee, CEO Penns Valley Area Historical Museum 244 West Aaron Square P.O. Box 80 Aaronsburg, PA 16820 349-4811 www.pennsvalleymuseum.org/index.php George Stover, President Centre County Library & Historical Museum 200 North Allegheny St. Bellefonte, PA 16823 355-1516 www.countylib.centreconnect.org Robyn Jackson, Curator Joyce Agate, PA Room Manager Pennsylvania Military Museum, 28th

Division Shrine U.S. Route 322 (Business) Boalsburg, PA 16827 466-6263 William Leech, Site Director

Curtin Village State Historic Site Roland Curtin Foundation Milesburg, PA 16853 357-6981 www.boggstownship.org/cv.html Bill Bennett, Site Administrator Philipsburg Historical Foundation 203 South Front Street, Box 8 Philipsburg, PA 16866 www.philipsburgpa.org Milesburg Museum and Historical Society P.O. Box 826 Milesburg, PA 16853 353-8310 Sandra Hoy, President Historical Society Bellefonte Museum 133 North Allegheny St. Bellefonte, PA 16823 355-4280 Donna Goldman, President Bellefonte Historical and Cultural Association P0 Box 141 Bellefonte, PA 16823 353-0573 www.bellefontearts.org Donna Rochon, President Historic Bellefonte, Inc. Train Station West High Street 571-0068 Ron Iadarola, President ri@abacusbellefonte.com Lions David House Museum 206 North Fourth Street Snow Shoe, PA 16874 387-4200 William Hall, Curator

Trace the “Footprints” of Mills Family History

1. 203 V. High Street — Centre County Bank Building. Basement room was site of Hills Barbershop for a short period in the mid-1880s.

2. 213 V. High Street - Parking 1st. The building on this site was destroyed by fire in 1978. In the basement, William H. Hills operated his barbershop from 1871-84, then relocated briefly to 203 V. High Street, A Hills barbershop was in this block 60 years (1871—1931). John “Pike” Mills barbered for his father, 1929—31.

3. Vest High Street Parking lot, Building which occupied the southern half of the lot was the location of the Negro Masonic Lodge, of which William H. Mills was a founder and member,

4. 315 W. High Street — Historic Bush House, built in 1868—69. Frederick A. Douglass, famed black abolitionist, was a guest here March 5, 1872, while in town to deliver a lecture sponsored by the Undine Fire Company. While here, he visited Mills Barbershop.

5. 260 N. Thomas Street — “The ten’s Nest,” former home of William A. Thomas, ironmaster, original section dates to 1785. William H. Hills lived here as a boy with the Thomas family in 1860.

6. St. Paul Street - Rear of 107 S. Thomas Street. Here stood Brouse’s barn until the l940s. John Hills, who played here in his youth, once lost his hat which was later found in the hay, crushed in a mountain like shape. His brother, Quinn, nicknamed John “Pike’s Peak,” later shortened to “Pike.” And it stuck for life,

7. 121 St. Paul Street — St. Paul’s A.H.E. Church, where Hills family worshipped. William H. Hills was a lay preacher and church officer. A pastor here, C. P. Harrington, was the father of Eathel, who married John “Pike” Mills, They were parents of The Mills Brothers. Original church, built in 1859, was destroyed by fire February 20, 1910, present edifice was dedicated same year.

8. 159 3. Thomas Street William H. and Agnes Cecilia Simms Mills and their family occupied home on this site 1877-1907. It was torn down after their removal.

9. 220-1/2 V. High Street - Bush Arcade, 1887-present. Similar arcade stood here 1866—87, prior to its destruction by fire. In post Civil War era through World Vat I, social events of Bellefonte’s black community were held in both buildings’ third-floor ballrooms. The Mills attended many of them,

10. 126-1/2 V. High Street - Former Hood’s Pool Hall. Popular hangout of townsfolk and Bellefonte Academy students. While home for his mother’s funeral in November 1928, John “Pike” Hills stopped by to hear his sons’ first radio broadcast over VLW, Cincinnati,

11. 124 V. High Street — Former Plaza Theatre, 1925—72. The Hills Brothers gave their only Bellefonte performance Oct. 24-25, 1938.

12. 215—18 H. High Street — Former “Colored School,” Community’s black children attended school here, beginning in 1870, until after Integration of Bellefonte schools in 1885. The older children of William H. Hills, leader of the integration movement, attended classes here.

13. 201 H. High Street — Mills family residence, 1907—80. Located in what is now Apartment 3, facing N. Penn Street. The Hills Brothers, when visiting, practiced on the family’s upright piano.

14, The Diamond — Soldiers’ and Sailors’ War Memorial, The Revolution through the Boxer Rebellion, Dedicated 1906. Included hereon are names of Centre County blacks who fought in the Civil War as members of the U.S. Colored Troops regiments. Among them were Lewis and Edward Hills, father and uncle of William H. Hills.

15. 348 H. Bishop Street — Bellefonte High School, 1887—1909. Here John “Pike” Mills attended classes at the turn of the century and was a member of one of the high school’s first football teams.

16. East Howard Street, south side - Union Cemetery, 1/10th mile east of the main entrance. Location of Hills family burial plot. Buried just west of here, in unmarked graves, with those of other U.S. Colored Troops, are Levis and Edward Mills.

17, 222 N. Allegheny Street — Former residence of Judge James 7. Hale, where Caroline Hills, William H. Hills’ mother, worked as a domestic. Hale, a Congressman, was a member of the famous Crittenden Committee which sought to avert the Civil War by compromise.

18. North Allegheny and Vest Linn Streets, southwest corner — Former site of the “Old Stone School,’ 1869-1909. Black youth, Including John “Pike” Hills, attended elementary school here after the system’s desegregation in 1885. The “new” high school, 1918—39, replaced the old building, but was destroyed by fire February 13, 1939. A new high school, now an elementary, was built in 1942-43.

Black Workers in Centre County’s Early Iron Industry

by Jacqueline Melander

In 1764, Capt. James Potter, an officer of the British Provincial Army and the first of the eventual settlers to explore Centre County, traveled from Fort Augusta (Sunbury) via the Susquehanna, up Bald Eagle Creek to Milesburg, Spring Creek to Bellefonte and from there to the top of Nittany Mountain. Seeing the lush green valley and forests beneath him, he is said to have exclaimed; “By Heavens, Thompson, I have discovered an empire!” What Captain Potter did not know was that in addition to the vast tracts of virgin timber, clear streams and abundant game, there was buried beneath that fertile land rich deposits of iron ore and limestone, the requisites for iron making and for the development of Centre County’s iron industry. It would be known in the 19th Century as “Juniata Iron” and this industrial ‘empire” would be known not only in America but in Europe as well.

Despite Potter’s discovery, relatively few settlers ventured beyond the Alleghenies until the end of the Revolutionary War. With the peace of 1763, however, settlers began to move north and west, through and around the mountains from the crowded Piedmont, in search of valuable tracts of land. Early surveyors in Nittany Valley had noticed outcroppings of iron ore on many tracts, hematite ore rich in iron content, and this news brought a different type of settler to the area—the ironmaster. Centre County’s early ironmasters were mostly Philadelphians of wealth and prominence. Some were Revolutionary War veterans and some had been involved in the iron industry in southeastern Pennsylvania.

First Centre County Iron Works

The first to build a charcoal furnace, in ‘1791, were Col. John Patton, from Roxborough Forge, Berks County, and a financial supporter of Washington’s army at Valley Forge, and Cot, Samuel Miles, a Revolutionary War veteran, member of the Colonial Assembly of Pennsylvania and— just before his venture, in 1790 — mayor of Philadelphia. They built Centre Furnace, the stack still visible at the edge of the Penn State University campus. General Philip Benner, who had learned ironmaking at Coventry Forge, Chester Co., and had fought in the Revolution with Anthony Wayne, built Rock Forge and Slitting Mill in 1793. I le later built a second forge and two iron fur races. Turner Furnace and Spring Creek Forge were built in 1794 by Daniel Turner’, one of the Commonwealth’s deputy surveyors; and in 1795, Harmony Forge was built by Col. Miles, Col. James Dunlop, from Cumberland Co., and co-founder of Bellefonte, and iris son John Dunlop. The younger Dunlop bruit Logan Furnace and Bellefonte Forge by 1800.

Information a boot these iron— masters, and about those who were to follow in the 19th Century, is available through local and other historical sources but little attention has been paid to the iron workers who helped to make the furnaces, forges and the iron plantations themselves, function.

Frontier’s Thirst for Labor

Centre County was rich in iron ore, limestone, plentiful timber, and fast flowing streams — all necessary for iron manufacturing — but the region did not have an abundant supply of labor. Its isolated location, beyond the “Endless Mountains,” contributed to that shortage. And even within the county, ironmasters were vulnerable to a short supply of both skilled and unskilled labor because their iron furnace communities were in relatively isolated settings, surrounded by huge forested areas necessary for fuel. Colonels Patton and Miles in 1799, for example, held 8,000 acres of Centre Furnace land. The 1800 census shows only 1,535 residents in all the area known as “Upper Bald Eagle and Spring Township,” despite the operation of three furnaces, three forges and a slitting mill, put into operation in the 1790s.

Labor shortages in southeastern Pennsylvania caused ironmasters to look to involuntary workers as a means of filling their labor needs. They used indentured and free men, both black and white, and also slaves as skilled and unskilled laborers. Israel Acrelius, a Swedish minister traveling in America from 1749 to 1756, left this account of the iron furnace labor force:

…workmen are partly English and partly Irish with some few Germans - The laborers are generally composed partly of negroes (slaves), partly of servants from Germany or Ireland bought for a term of years.

Documentary evidence, although limited, suggests that those early ironmasters of Centre County, most of whom had ties with the iron industry in southeastern Pennsylvania, also turned to involuntary workers to fill some of their labor needs.

Slavery in Centre County

Census figures show only two slaves in the County in 1800, only one in 1810 and none after that time, with none of the slave owners associated with the iron industry. Other evidence however, suggests something quite to the contrary. For example, we have a record of an advertisement dated July 26, 1799, and signed by John Patton of Centre Furnace offering a reward of 2s for the return of

…Negroman John about 22 also negro girl named Flora about 18...who ever secures the runaways in any place where their master can get them shall have the above reward and reasonable charges paid...

Pennsylvania’s abolition law of 1780 provided for gradual emancipation. Masters wet-c required [o register their slaves by November 1,1780, with unregistered slaves being judged free, Children born after March 1, 1780, would become free when they were 28 years of age, and the enrollment of slaves was to be maintained.

Several birth registration records by ironmasters in Centre County in the early 1800s demonstrate that slavery did exist and was maintained. From General Benner:

“Philip Benner of Spring Township In the County of Centre Ironmaster enters his Negro child Kiz a Female who was horn on the thirteenth of April in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and three to be Recorded who affirms according to Law that the above Statement Is true to the best of his Knowledge September 27th, 1803.”

(s) Philip Benner

From Joseph and John Miles:

“I Joseph Miles one of the partners of Joseph Miles and Company Ironmasters at Centre Furnace in Ferguson Township Centre County Do make known unto John S. Lowrey clerk of the Court of General Quarter Sessions of the Place of the said County that on the Sixteenth day of March last a negro male child was born in our Family at Centre Furnace aforesaid named ‘Charles’ which I request you the said John G. Lowrey clerk as aforesaid to Register according to law. Witness my hand this twenty-fifth day of July in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and seven 1807.”

(s) Jos Miles

“John & Joseph Miles of Spring Township, Centre County & Commonwealth of Pennsa lronmasters, enter as their property, the right to the service of a negro boy named Jerry, born on the first day of February One thousand eight hundred at Spring Township aforesaid in the Family at Milesborough Forgo.”

(s) John & Joseph Miles

In addition to those records, slave births were recorded in 1809 to James Harris, co-founder of Bellefonte and son—in—law of ironmaster James Dunlop, and in 1811 to Elizabeth Smith, Dunlop’s daughter. The last registration of a slave birth from these available records, although not associated with an ironmaster, was recorded on April 10, 1820. John Blair Lint in his 1883 History of Centre and Clinton Counties mentions ownership of live slaves by a county resident as late as 1830.

Black Indentured Workers

Documentation on indentured or apprenticed black workers is less available since census information does not differentiate between free and indentured, Newspaper advertisements, however, suggest that as late as the early 1830s such arrangements still existed. One, directly relating to the ironmaster at Howard Furnace, appeared in the Bellefonte Patriot and Farm Journal of Oct. 10, 1833. It reads:

One Cent Reward

Ran away from the subscriber… an indented Mulatto boy named Thomas Perry, about 15 years of age, five feet three inches high. Whoever takes up said runaway and returns him to the subscriber shall receive the above reward, but no charges. All persons are hereby cautioned against harboring said boy at their Peril.

Joseph Harris

Howard Furnace

A second example from the same newspaper, dated February 2, 1832:

$10 REWARD

Runaway from the subscriber, about 3 months since, an apprentice in the Forging business, named

JOHN BAKER

a dark mulatto man, about 21 years of age, five feet nine inches tall, very stout built; he wears drab cloth run-about while at work, and on Sundays wears a blue tight-bodied coat, very fond of a watch, and generally wears a guardchain. The above reward will be given If brought to the Bellefonte jail so that I may get him again.

Simon Stanly

Bellefonte

Iron Plantation Economy

Centre County’s early iron plantations, like those in other parts of Pennsylvania, developed into self-sufficient communities not unlike the cotton and tobacco plantations of the South. Isolated because of the forest lands surrounding them, these iron communities centered around the furnace, forge, farm and ironmaster’s mansion. Homes were provided for the workers. A grist mill, sawmill, blacksmith shop, and often a general store, as well as extensive agricultural lands, provided supplies and food for the communities. Life centered on the business of making iron.

Linn’s description of General Philip Benner’s plantation at Rock gives details of one of the county’s examples of such an early iron furnace community. When Benner came, according to Linn, he immediately built a log cabin and the first of two forges. He also built, over time, a sawmill, stone grist mill, two furnaces, and a rolling mill, slitting mill and nail factory. A boarding house was built for his “hands” along with other houses for his workers. In 1812 lie built a stone mansion, patterned after one it Philadelphia, and Linn wrote: “it was considered an aristocratic affair for its day.. a handsome, substantial structure,” Benner also conducted extensive farming operations.

Benner needed both skilled and unskilled workers. He needed them to manage and man the furnaces and forges, lie also needed them to cot timber, make charcoal, quarry the iron ore and limestone, and to haul the raw materials to the furnaces and the finished product to market. He also needed farm workers and operators for the various subsidiary activities at the plantation such as for the grist mill and saw mill. According to papers left by Benner, his handpicked labor force traveled with him in 1793 from Chester County to what would, in 1800, become Centre County. The General wrote: “I had to pack provisions from the eastern counties through the woods to supply 93 people.” This caravan of 93 traveled by pack horse over dirt roads, mountain trails, through unbroken forests, and across streams to reach their destination. Names of many of those workmen are available but little is known about them. There is no indication whether any of those 93 were slaves, or indentured blacks, or free blacks, ‘the 1800 Census does show, however, that General Benner had four free blacks in his household. That information combined with his signed registration of a slave birth demonstrates that Benner did have blacks at his iron plantation at Rock.

Black Labor and Iron 1800—1820

That same 1800 census shows that free blacks were associated with other county ironmasters. James and Julio Dunlop, and James’ daughter Ann Dunlop Harris, each are shown as having two free blacks listed in their households; Cot, Samuel Miles had three; John Patton, four; Thomas Patton, one. William Miles, later associated with Hecla Furnace, is listed as having two free blacks and one slave on an 1801 tax list. Twenty of the 25 free blacks designated on the census data for the region known as Upper Bald Eagle and Spring Townships were associated with iron masters.

The county’s first murder trial in 1802 involved a slave owned by James Smith, a son— in—law of ironmaster Dunlop, and a free black employee of Dunlop’s, who was killed while driving a team between Bellefonte and Logan

Furnace.

By 1810, four furnaces and four forges were in operation in Bellefonte and in two of the county’s 10 townships, Spring and Ferguson. According to the 1810 census, 64 blacks, over half of the black population for the county, were living in hose three locations with nearly a third of them in households of ironmasters and their families. General Benner is listed with 7 free blacks; John Dunlop with 3; two of his daughters with 4; Joseph Green, a new partner at Centre Furnace, 3; Joseph Miles, son of Col. Miles, 2. According to these census figures, 6% of Bellefonte’s total population was black in 1810. A few black households are listed. [It is likely that besides the 64 in the ‘iron region’ of fire county, many of the remaining 51 blacks in Centre Co. in such non-iron townships as Potter were engaged in charcoal burning and mining activities.—Ed.]

Black Workers in the 1820s

The iron industry continued to prosper into the 1820s with new ironmasters arriving and new furnaces being built. The new arrivals included the Valentine brothers and William A. Thomas, Chester Co. Quakers all, who as the lion Valentine and Thomas were involved in a variety of business ventures in the county in addition to ironmaking. They also became involved in anti-slavery activities, The first furnace in Bald Eagle Valley was built by Roland Curtin in 1817. It remained in the Curtin family and produced charcoal iron into the 20th century. Hardman Philips, the founder of Philipsburg, built the Cold Stream Furnace, also in 1817. Fifteen blacks are shown in the households of those ironmasters and their families in 1820, with the greatest number, live, listed with Valentine & Thomas.

The several black households that appear in the listings for Bellefonte and the six townships now representing the iron furnace area, probably suggest that free black labor was becoming increasingly important to the work force at charcoal furnaces and forges. Evidence that black and white families lived in close association is suggested in records from the

Methodist Church at Eagle Furnace. In 1827 there were 364 white members and 11 black members, in 1828 there were 402 white, 16 black.

While the population of the iron furnace area in 1821 only represented 34% of the county’s total population, the number of blacks in that area represented 81% of the county’s total black population. Bellefonte’s black population in 1820 represented 8% of the borough’s total population. Iron production grew in extent and in importance within the county economy during the following decade, and anticipated explosive new growth resulting from the longed-for completion of a canal link with eastern markets. The Bellefonte Patriot reported on February 23, 1826:

…it appears the iron-works in this county are capable of making annually eleven thousand tons of pig-metal and three thousand one hundred tons of bar iron; and this quantity, no doubt, would be greatly increased by improved facilities of transportation to market.

Black Labor Force Paces Iron

Blacks in 1830 were part of the households of ironmasters William Thomas, Reuben Valentine, Roland Curtin, and new Howard Furnace ironmasters Joseph Harris and Richard Thomas. In addition, there were over 35 separate black households of two or more people in Bellefonte and the eight townships now representing the iron furnace area. Total black population for this area, at 226, represented 86% of all blacks in the county, while the area represented just one half of the county’s total population. Bellefonte’s black population remained at 8%. The head of one of those black households listed in the 1830 Census was killed, according to Linn, when his team “with two and a half tons of iron on his wagon” went over a precipice. He was employed by Valentine and Thomas.

While some furnaces had shut down since the industry began in the 1790s, the period of the 1830s introduced four new furnaces along Bald Eagle Creek—Howard, Julian, Martha and Hannah. Centre Furnace, now under the direction of James Irvin, was prospering, as was the iron industry as a whole. Turnpikes had been built with the political and financial support of ironmasters Benner, Dunlop, and Curtin, and plans were under way to build a canal to link Centre County with the state canal system in order to gain greater access to both eastern and western markets. The Bald Eagle and Spring Creek Navigation Co. was incorporated in 1834 with Roland Curtin (Eagle Furnace), Bond Valentine (Bellefonte Iron Works), James Irvin (Centre Furnace), Joseph Harris (Howard Iron Works), Joseph Miles (Milesburg Furnace), and Andrew Gregg, Jr. (Hecla Furnace) named as six of the nine commissioners. Linn reports that in 1836 the annual production of these (iron) works was about 12,000 tons of pig-metal, 4 tons of blooms, and 2,500 tons of bar iron and nails.

The industry reached its peak in 1540 with, according to Linn, “seven furnaces, nine forges and rolling mills, and 603 men employed in the manufacture (including mining) of iron. The black population reached its highest number, 291, in 1840 also. Bellefonte and the nine townships now in the iron furnace area represented slightly more than half of the county’s total population. Over 90% of all blacks living in the county lived in the iron furnace area. Bellefonte’s count, 117, was nearly one-half of the blacks in tile area.

Decline of Centre County Iron

But this was to be the end of charcoal furnace construction for the county. Iron furnaces were running out of fuel. A good-sized furnace could consume an acre of hardwood forest per day. Tim addition, an economic depression began to force smaller furnaces into either selling out or closing. Competition from British ironmakers was unrelenting; they were able to make and sell iron at lower prices. The discovery of Mesabi Iron in Minnesota in 1844 and the completion of locks between Sault Ste. Marie and Lake Superior in l855 opened an even greater threat. Finally, the introduction in 1856 of the Bessemer Process, which made the use of cheaper ores possible, negated the advantage of charcoal iron, ‘The discovery of real in the Allegheny Plateau at Snow Shoe, north of Bellefonte, gave the industry a reprieve that lasted through the Civil War. But after the war, competition once again began to cut into the county’s market. By 1850, only four furnaces remained in operation—Bellefonte, Milesburg, Eagle, and Howard—and finally they, too, were replaced by larger ironmaking corporations. The number of blacks in Bellefonte dropped 23 from the 1840 high of 117—from 11% back down to 8%. Milesburg lost 24 of 33, and all 11 in Howard left. In 1860, however, there was a marked increase, not to the county overall but in Bellefonte, with Bellefonte’s proportion of the blacks in the county jumping from 45% to 55%. This increase

undoubtedly reflects the pre-Civil War movement of blacks northward in and through communities with anti-slavery sympathies, such as Bellefonte. The climb in actual numbers of blacks continued into 1870 but the borough percentage fell to 5%, where it remained into the 1900’s.

Black Labor’s Role in the County

Iron manufacturing was Centre County’s foremost industry. It was responsible for encouraging exploration, settlement and development of what had been wilderness. It brought ironmasters, military leaders, men of wealth and prominence, to the area, They, in turn, brought the beginnings of a labor force to make the iron furnaces, forges, and the subsidiary activities of these ironmaking communities function. The charcoal iron industry also introduced the arrival of additional workers, both skilled and unskilled. It prompted Bellefonte to its role as a state political power and a 9th Century village of significance beyond its size. It was an ironmaster James Irvin of Centre Furnace, who provided the 200 acres of depleted farm lands and a pledge of $10,000 for the establishment of the Farmer’s High School, now known as the Pennsylvania State University.

The charcoal iron industry also appears to have attracted a proportionately large black population to parts of Centre County. The growth of this black population from 1800 parallels the growth of the iron industry, with both of them peaking about 1840. Bellefonte, with large furnace operations and with a variety of other employment opportunities, became the center for this black population and by 1840, blacks in Bellefonte represented 11% of its total population. At approximately the same period, Philadelphia’s black population was 4% and Pennsylvania’s was 2%.

Black workers, then, appeared to have played a significant role in Centre County’s early iron industry. While information on individual black workers and their families is scarce or unknown, the evidence suggests that these workers——slave, indentured, apprenticed, free—contributed to the development and the success of 19th-Century Centre County’s iron industry.

The following tables show the population of Centre County living in the ironmaking townships and borough, and the portion of the County’s black population living in that region, for each census year from 1800 (incomplete) through 1860. Column I lists the places, Columns 2 their population that year, and Column 3 the percentage of the entire Centre County population living in each township. Column 4 lists the black residents in those places and Column 5 gives the percentage of the County’s total black population these residents make up. In italics at the end of each decade table appear the total populations and black populations of the iron-making area, and the totals for the whole county.

Thus, for 1840 we can see that Bellefonte’s 1,032 residents comprise only 5% of Centre County’s 20,492 total, while the 117 black residents constitute 40% of the County’s total of 291 blacks. That year, the population of the 10 ironmaking townships was 11,135, 54% of Centre County’s total, while the 266 blacks living in those 10 townships comprised 91% of the County’s blacks.

Notes on the Underground Railroad in Bellefonte

Provided by Candace Dannaker

Briefly, the sites in Bellefonte, the AME Church. Two congregations merged in 1833 to form the current AME Church. WA. Thomas, a Quaker and Ironmaster donated the property where the current church is located. The original church looked like a Quaker meeting house. It burned at the turn of the last century and the present structure was built in the Gothic Revival structure you see now. Harry Mills told me that the fire was caused by a Cross Burning by the KKK who were active in Bellefonte at that time. I cannot attest to the accuracy of his story, I never took the time to research any news stories of the period. Although, I have spoken to a few residents who said their fathers were members of the KKK during that period. The free blacks and members of this congregation were very active in the Underground RR. Churches were safe sanctuaries for the slaves. The Mills Grandparents of the “Mills Brothers’ singing group and members of this church, were themselves slaves who escaped and were brought to Bellefonte by members of the AME Church. W.A. Thomas was the President of the LJGRR in Centre County. Although there is no documentation that he ever hid slaves on his property, there are other oral stories of efforts by him to secure safe passage for slaves traveling through this area. His home the Willowbank, is visible from Water Street, across from Tussey Mountain Outfitters.

The Linn House at 133 Allegheny St. also has oral tradition as hiding slaves, as does 203 East Howard St. My opinion, based on research, is that the residents of these homes were involved in aiding, but that they would not have been regular stops. It was far too dangerous to house people, $1000.00 flat fine, plus $1000.00 for each slave recaptured. The Linn House was too visible and the Samuel Harris Home, at the edge of town at that time, would also have made movement difficult. Samuel Harris was a cabinet maker and also the town coffin maker, so he would have had somewhat more ease in helping some escape. His wife was Nancy Petrikin, sister of B. Rush Petrikin, who is recorded in Linns History as the first stated abolitionist in Centre County and a Stationmaster of UGRR in Patton Township. Most movement of people was in good weather, Spring and Summer and early Fall. Only at night, they never traveled more than 5 miles a day and generally were hidden in Out Buildings or Barns, so that it would ease escape. The people helping only knew who was bringing a group and their contact to move the people to the next site. It was for their protection, if arrested.

Centre County has many sites, in Bellefonte, members of the AME Church, Presbyterian Church and “Society of Friends” were a few of the people committed to the Freedom Movement of the UGRR.

St. Paul’s A.M.E. Church, Bellefonte by William Mills, Sr.

The organization of St. Paul’s A.M.E. Church of Bellefonte is the result of a controversy which arose in the Wesleyan Church, located on East Logan Street, about the year 1853, between the Wesleyans and the Bethelites as they were then called. The controversy continued until I finally led to a separation of the two societies, which had been meeting and worshipping together. The Bethel communicants had now determined to organize a society of their own, which they did and which is now Cal led the “African Methodist Episcopal Church.’ The first religious service by the AML Society was held at the residence of Ephraim Caton, who lived on West Lamb Street. The officiating minister on hat occasion was Rev. Willis Nazery, who was later ordained Bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal connection. The Wesleyan Society was unable to find an agreeable place of worship, consequently many of them united with he AME Society. As the AME Society began to increase so rapidly in numbers, they were compelled to a abandon the home of Father Caton as a place of worship and seek a more convenient place. They finally succeeded in securing a dwelling house from Mr. Frank Steele, a white gentleman, whose house was located on the alley leading up from Sooth Thomas Street. This house was fitted up for a place of worship, and remained one for some time. Having held religious services from house to house on until early in the year of 1859, the officers moved to a one-story frame building which stood at that time adjacent to the present church edifice. The membership was still growing very rapidly, so in the same year the officers were again compelled to seek a more commodious place of worship. Building a Permanent Home Three men, John Williams, George Simms, Sr., and Ephraim Caton formed themselves into a committee and called upon Mr. William A. Thomas, who was a member of the Society of Friends, to solicit his aid in securing a more convenient place in which to worship. Out of the goodness of his heart and the sympathy of both his and his wife for this struggling church, they resolved at once that the petition be granted. Consequently, Mr. Thomas deeded the AME Society the lot upon which the present church edifice has been erected. The deed has been legally signed by Mr. William A. Thomas and his wife Eliza Thomas, and remains in the possession of the trustees of the AME Church in Bellefonte, Pennsylvania, the first AME Church being erected in 1859. The dedication followed the cornerstone laid; Rev. William Henry Grimes was the pastor in charge. On Sunday morning, February 20, 1909, the first church was destroyed by fire. In those days the church was heated by a large heater which became overheated and caused the fire. Some of the pews were saved as well as the organ, the organ being taken to the parsonage for keeping. Early in 1910 the present church was built. On the afternoon of October 16, 1910, the new building was dedicated by Reverend Bishop U.B. Derrick; the pastor at that time was Reverend P. E. Paul Outstanding Members Some of the first trustees of the church were: William Mills, Sr., Alfred Stewart Goen Thomas, Peter Jones, Henry Williams, Thomas Taylor, and Edward Overton. These men worked together for many many years, serving as long as 37 years in the same capacity. The membership at one time was quite large and it is believed the population in Bellefonte to be from 100 to 200 persons. There was industry here at that time for blacks and every one had work; today there is nothing to hold people in the area, so our population has dwindled by choice and by death. At this writing our membership is 20. Even though it is small, we have much pride and joy in being able to maintain our worship and congregational fellowship. We are making repairs to help beautify as well as make the church more comfortable. With the help of two very fine people, Mr. and Mrs. Robert D. Lynch of Mill Hall, Pennsylvania, much has been done in the 10 years that they have been affiliated with the church. Mrs. Lynch is the choir director and organist, while Mr. Lynch is Sunday School superintendent and a member of the trustee board.

Mr. George Mosley, one of our oldest members, is still very faithful. He served in all capacities for more than 50 years. It was just within the past five years that he asked to be relieved of his duties. He is a real Christian. Three other members also in their 80’s are Mrs. Miriam French, Mr. Harold Pendleton, and Reverend Maynard Spiller. Reverend Spiller retired from the ministry after serving St. Paul’s Church for 25 years, retiring in 1977. The present minister is Reverend Henry B. Owens, who has served us for the past four years. Reverend Owens also has the Lewistown charge. He will retire in September of this year of 1981.

We are reaching out hoping that some day our membership will be at least half of what it was in 1910. From time to time we have students as well as townspeople from State College who worship with us until they graduate or move away for other reasons. Even though this is the case, we have enjoyed the fellowship with all who came. The doors of St. Paul’s AME Church are open to all.

Philipsburg’s A.M.E. Church,

Founded 1869 by William Mills, Sr.

In the material I found on the blacks residing in Philipsburg, Were was nothing to tell me what kind of work they were involved in.

The year 1869 marked the beginning of the African Methodist Episcopal Church in the town. There were less than 100 blacks at that time.

Chester Munson, one of Philipsburg’s leading citizens, in the year 1877 donated a lot for the erection of Philipsburg’s first African Methodist Episcopal Church. This was located on the west side of South Second Street on the hilt leading into South Philipsburg. The lumber for the church was a gift from the people of the town. The first post hole was dug by Mrs. Elizabeth Onley, a member of the congregation, and money for the purchase of the seats for the church was secured by means of a concert given by Professor L.A. Chase and his group of singers.

During the pastorate of Rev. G. T. Smith a site for a new building was purchased on the west side of Fifth Street between Pine and Spruce.

During the summer of 1909 the Derrick AME Chapel was completed at a cost of $2,500, The chapel was dedicated by Bishop Derrick, for whom it was named.

We can readily appreciate the heroic efforts required for those few members to maintain even a humble place of worship, and rejoice in the completion of their church in 1909.

Church records have been lost due to all church members dying. We do know that there was very little activity in the church after 1946. There were sporadic services wit I very few persons attending. By l 958 alt church services had ceased.

Mr. and Mrs. Sumner Craig resided in the house next to the church with their son. Mrs. Craig, now a widow, still maintains the home.

The church was torn down in 1980 and a new private dwelling is now under construction.

BRIEF SNOW SHOE REGION HISTORY PREPARED FOR LEADERSHIP CENTRE COUNTY By W. H. Hall

The Snow Shoe Region of Centre County, now often referred to as the Mountaintop Area, consists of three municipalities: Snow Shoe and Burnside Townships, and within the confines of the like-named township, the borough of Snow Shoe. This area, which lies in the extreme northwest portion of the county on the Appalachian Plateau, covers about 110,000 acres of mostly woodland. This is about 15% of the total land area of our county - and one would never think we’re so unknown as a sizeable segment of the county, but the average State College citizen doesn’t even know where ‘Snow Shoe” is! Yet, such isolation is one of the finer luxuries of the area. Recently, a newly arrived resident extolled the merits of his newly discovered mountaintop haven to the focal Lions Club by saying, “You people are hiding a beauty spot, and keeping it secret from the world!” Snow Shoe Township was formed in 1840 and Burnside 16 years later, from the northwestern part of the former. Snow Shoe Borough was incorporated in 1907. Wildlife and trout abound, so hunting and fishing are high priorities for all sportsmen.

Relatively speaking, this area was settled later than other parts of the county, with no permanent settlers until the latter part of the first quarter of 1800. The first surveys had been made in the summer of 1773, covering six warrants, shortly after Pennsylvania had purchased the land from William Penn. These surveys were executed by Thomas Smith, who later became a justice of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania. His company of surveyors were also the ones who gave us our name “Snow Shoe” - they had found a lost or abandoned Indian snowshoe, and when he reported the surveys to the Philadelphia Land Office, he designated them “The Snow Shoe Camp Surveys”.

Timbering was the early enticement for further settlement, but when coal was discovered in about 1820, the area began attracting attention. The early area of greatest settlement was the village of Moshannon, know then as Moshannon Mills because of the large number of various kinds of mills - grist, sawmills, shingle, tannery - even a match factory of some sort was started (unconfirmed), and others. But coal became KING after the first railroad in Centre County, the Bellefonte & Snow Shoe Railroad line was extended into the region, and lasted for more than a century until the more-easily obtained deposits were exhausted; now, “deep-mine” coal-mining is almost unheard of, and only a few small strip-mines still operate. The area once had four hotels in full operation - now there are none in operation - with one vacant but still standing after nearly 100 years!

Once flourishing industries such as the coal mining, textiles manufacturing, clay mining, and vacationing “city-folks” are all gone - the area now has only a few employing companies still in business. A brick refractory is our leading employer, but machine shops are thriving and our fastest growing industry, it would appear. Of course, the advent of Interstate 80 in the mid-60s has changed this area, and together with increased home building, adds to the general economy through service-oriented businesses. We continue to be optimistic about our mountaintop - come visit us!

SYNOPSIS HISTORY OF SNOW SHOE REGION, CENTRE COUNTY

The Snow Shoe area, located in the northern part of Centre County and consisting of three municipalities is frequently, and appropriately, referred to as the “Mountaintop Area”. It is on the Appalachian Plateau and covers 109,440 acres, or about 15% of the total land area of the county. The region is bounded on the north by Clinton County, the west by Clearfield County, the south by Rush and Union Townships, and on the east by Boggs and Curtin Townships. Snow Shoe Borough, occupying 349 acres in the southeastern part of the region is entirely surrounded by Snow Shoe Township. The region is divided in half from northeast to southwest forming two townships: Snow Shoe, comprised of 53,475 acres, occupies the southeastern half (except for the small area occupied by the borough); with Burnside Township, comprising 55,016 acres, being the northwestern half.

The first warrant surveys were made here over 200 years ago, but no permanent settlers appeared until the first part of the 1800s, around 1818-1825. The generally accepted name- origin is that the surveyors, under the supervision of Thomas Smith (who later became a justice of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court) found an abandoned or forgotten Indian snowshoe hanging in a tree. When Smith submitted the map of the first six warrant surveys to the Philadelphia land office, inscribed thereon were the words, “Snow shoe Camp surveys.” This was in 1773-74, and the map shows clearly the Indian path that traversed this mountain top region, providing a travel route for Indians moving between Lock Haven (The Great Island) to the southeast and Clearfield (Chinklacamoose) to the northwest. It also became the route that was used by early settlers and eventually became, in great part, the old Snow Shoe Pike. Snow Shoe was just an overnight stopping place for the Indians, and the site became known as “The Sleeping Place.” This was all a part of the Great Shamokin Indian Path, and well documented in the Indian History of Pennsylvania.

Although settlement in those early years was focused on the flourishing village of Moshannon (originally “Moshannon Mills” because of the many various milk that. dotted the area), other villages sprang up: Snow Shoe (early-on known as Snow Shoe City), Pine Glen, Gillentown and Clarence. Today, Snow Shoe (now a borough), Clarence, Moshannon and Pine Glen are the main concentrations of residents and businesses. Snow Shoe has a population of 800, Snow Shoe Township (which includes the villages of Clarence and Moshannon) approximately 1750, and Burnside Township (with Pine Glen the population center) 390, making a total of almost 3,000. Snow Shoe Township was officially formed in 1840 out of Boggs Township, and in 1857 Burnside Township was created out of about one-half of Snow Shoe Township. Snow Shoe became a borough in 1907.

The Bellefonte and Snow Shoe Railroad came into this area in 1859 and promoted rapid growth in Snow Shoe environs, establishing hotels, coal mines and other businesses, as well as new housing, and accumulating vast tracts of land. They sold out their entire holdings in 1881 — the railroad and properties to Pennsylvania Railroad and the coal interests to Berwind White Co. In 1885, Lehigh Valley Coal Co. took over Berwind White’s coal lands and became the area’s prime employer for the next 65 to 70 years. In 1964, they sold their total land holdings to National Diversified, who not long afterward went into receivership to several Chicago banks. PER abandoned its entire line here in 1957. Coal-mining, now nearly dormant, began here around 1819 when samples were taken to Bellefonte and found to be very satisfactory in tests made at a blacksmith forge there. It was once without equal in production employment here. Timbering and lumbering have likewise provided regular employment, but have been neither stable nor as productive as “King” coal. Today, our largest employment is in an active refractory brick and special products plant, with service businesses a close second. A relatively new industry, machine and tool products, has brightened prospects for increased employment; but overall, the Mountaintop area is becoming a “bedroom” community... most of our employed commute daily to Bellefonte, State College and other nearby towns.

Regimental History 148th Pennsylvania Volunteers The regiment was organized at Camp Curtin, Harrisburg, PA. on September 8, 1862 and named the 148th Pennsylvania Volunteers. Seven companies were recruited from Centre County, and one each from Jefferson, Indiana, and Clarion Counties. It was a part of Booke’s Brigade — Barlow’s Division — Second Corps. At the request of the line officers, James A. Beaver, Lt. Col., 45 PVI, was appointed Colonel. After 3 months of service in Maryland, it joined the Army of the Potomoc and remained in the 1st Division during the entire war. Its 1st battle was at Chancellorsville, where it lost 31 killed, 119 wounded and 14 missing, Col. Beaver being wounded severely also. Gen. Caldwell commanded the Division at Gettysburg, and Col. Cross (5th NH), the Brigade. It lost at Gettysburg, 19 killed, 101 wounded and S missing. It went into winter quarters (1863—1864) near Stevensburg, VA. where it received 283 conscripts and 120 recruits. It was prominently engaged at Po River and Spotsylvania, where it lost 33 killed, 235 wounded and 33 missing – total, 301: THE GREATEST LOSS OF ANY INFANTRY REGIMENT AT SPOTSYLVANIA. Col. Beaver, while in command of a brigade, was severely wounded at Petersburg, June 16, 1864. He joined the regiment just as it was entering the fight at Ream’s Station, where he was again wounded, and suffered amputation of a leg. In September, 1864, the War Department ordered that one regiment in each division be armed with breech-loading rifles; the 148th was selected by General Hancock as the deserving one in its division to be thus armed. The regiment participated in the Grand Review in Washington, DC on May 23, 1865. It was mustered out near Alexandria, VA on June 1, 1865.

Field and Staff Officers Col. James Beaver Asst. Surg. Calvin Fisher Lt. Col. Robert McFarlane Asst. Surg. Alfred Hamilton Lt. Col. George Fairlamb Asst. Surg. John Allen Lt. Col. James Weaver Chaplain William Stevens Major Robert Forster Sgt. Maj. Isaac Sloan Major George Bayard Sgt. Maj. Joseph Hall Adjt. Robert Lipton QM Sgt. William Devinney Adjt. Joseph Muffly Com. Sgt. James Odenkirk Adjt. Charles Ramsey Com. Sgt. Lewis Ingram QM John Kurtz Hospital Steward William Mayes QM Samuel Musser Hospital Steward Jacob Kreider Surgeon Uriah Davis Principal Musician William Harpster Pl. Musician Samuel Otto Pl. Musician Robert Cassady

Congressional Medal of Honor Four men were awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor: 1. Private Robert W. Ammerman, Company B — At Spotsylvania, VA, May 12, 1864; captured battle flag of 8th North Carolina, being one of the foremost in the assault.

2. Captain Jeremiah Z. Brown, Company K — At Petersburg, VA, October 27, 1864; with 100 selected volunteers, assaulted and captured the works of the enemy, together with a number of officers and men. 3. Private George H. Harris, Company B — At Spotsylvania, VA, May 12, 1864; capture of flag, wresting it from the color bearer and shooting an officer who attempted to regain it. 4. Private Josiah Phillips, Company E — At Sutherland Station, VA, April 2, 1865; capture of flag.

Baffles and Skirmishes 1863 1. Chancellorsville, VA, May 1—5 2. Hay Market, June 25 3. Gettysburg, PA, July 1—3 4. Happing Heights, VA, July 23 5. Richardson’s Ford, VA, September 1 6. South Side Rappahannock, October 12 7. Auburn Mills, VA, October 14 8. Bristoe Station, October 14 9. Kelley’s Ford, VA, November 7 10. Mine Run, November 27—30; December 1 1864 11, Morton’s Ford, VA, February 6—7 12, Wilderness, VA, May 5—7 13. Po River, VA, May 9—10 14. Spotsylvania, VA, May 12—20 15. Assault at Salient, May 12 16. Milford Station, VA, May 20 17. Reconnaissance by regiment, May 22 18. North Anna River, May 23—27 19. Totopotomoy Creek, VA, May 28—31 20. Cold Harbor, June 2-12 21, Cold Harbor Assault, June 3 22. Siege of Petersburg, VA, June 16—April 2, 1865 23. Assault on Petersburg, VA, June 16 24. Assault on Petersburg, VA, June 17 25. Assault on Petersburg, VA, June 16 26. Jerusalem Plank Road, June 21; 23 27. Strawberry Plains (Deep Bottom), VA, north of James River, July 27; 29 28. Deep Bottom, VA, north of James River, August 14-16 29. Ream’s Station, VA, Weldon Railroad, August 25 30. Fort Crater, October 27 31. Fort Monroe, October 29 1865 32. Attack and capture of picket line, March 25 33. Gravelly Run, March 29 34. Hatcher’s Run, VA, March 30 35. White Oak Road, VA, March 31 36. Sutherland Station, April 2 37 Deatonsville (Amelia Springs), VA, April 6 38. Farmville, VA, north of Appomattox River, April 7 39. Surrender of Lee’s Army, April 9

Regimental Losses Data taken from Fox’s Regimental Losses: Field and Staff - 1 officer died of disease, accident, in prison, etc. Company A — I officer and 15 men were killed or died of wounds; 1 officer and 19 men died of disease, accident, in prison, etc. Company B - 14 men were killed or died of wounds; 30 men died of disease, accident, in prison, etc. Company C - 7 officers and 28 men were killed or died of wounds; 11 men died of disease, accident, in prison, etc. Company D - 29 men were killed or died of wounds; 2 officers and 18 died of disease, accident, in prison, etc.

Company E - 14 men were killed or died of wounds; 25 men died of disease, accident, in prison, etc. Company F — .7 men were killed or died of wounds; 13 men died of disease, accident, in prison, etc. Company G - 19 men were killed or died of wounds; 10 men died of disease, accident, in prison, etc. Company H — 2 officers and 24 men were killed or died of wounds; 18 men died of disease, accident, in orison, etc. Company I — I officer and 19 men were killed or died of wounds; 19 men died of disease, accident, in prison, etc. Company K - I officer and 19 men were killed or died of wounds; 20 men died of disease, accident, in prison, etc. The total enrollment of the regiment was 1,339 men. 210 men (15.6%) were killed or died of wounds. 187 (13.9%) men died of disease, accident, in prison, etc. 62 (4.6%) died in Confederate prisons. Sources Bates, Samuel P. History of Pennsylvania Volunteers, 1861-5. Harrisburg: B. 5ingerly, 1870. The Congressional Medal of Honor: the Names, the Deeds, Forest Ranch, CA: Sharp & Dunnigan, 1984. Muffly, Joseph W. The Story of Our Regiment: a History of the 148th Pennsylvania Volunteers. Des Moines, IA: Kenyon, 1904.

Centre County Historical Trivia

1) In 1892, how long was the train ride from Bellefonte to State College?

A. 15 minutes

B. 30 minutes

C. 1 hour and 15 minutes

2) The Millheim Coronet band was invited to play at the presidential inauguration in 1880, but never made it. Why?

A. The president was assassinated.

B. A blizzard prevented travel to Washington.

C. The candidate who issued the invitation was not elected.

3) How many forts were in Penns Valley in the 1700s?

A. Two

B. Three

C. One

4) The borough of Philipsburg predates the county by how many years?

A. 33

B. 15

C. 3

5) In July 1900, the one real estate agent in Bellefonte reported business was dull. What was the reason?

A. No one wanted a new house.

B. There were no houses for sale.

C. People were out picking berries.

6) There were turnpikes or toll roads in Centre County during the 1 800s. How much was the toll at the Old Fort toll house in 1878?

A. 2 cents for a sleigh or sled and 20 cents for a carriage

B. $1 for a sleigh or sled and $2 for a carriage

C. 50 cents for a sleigh or sled and $1 for a carriage

7) In the 1880s, the Elysian Palace was located at the Cold Stream Dam in Philipsburg, Was the

Elysian Palace a:

A. Turkish steam bath for men?

B. A high-class funeral home?

C. A dance hall, restaurant and sail-boat house?

8) The first class graduated from Philipsburg High School on May 15, 1888. How many students were in the graduating class?

A. 10

B. 6

C. 3

9) To stimulate the use of paper money, the government allowed local banks across America to print their own currency between 1863 and 1935. More than 14,000 local banks in the United States issued their own money. How many towns in Centre County had their own currency under a Bank Note Charter from the government?

A. One

B. Eight

C. Six

10) How many boroughs and townships are there in Centre County?

A. 6 boroughs and 26 townships

B. 11 boroughs and 25 townships

C. 8 boroughs and 22 townships

11) What was Centre County’s first industry?

A. Lumbering

B. A huge sawmill

C. Pig iron making

12) St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Philipsburg, consecrated in 1870, lays claim to having the world’s first what?

A. Female rector

B. Electric lights

C. Services conducted in two languages

13) The first school was built in what is now Centre County in 1789. Where was the school?

A. Pine Grove Mills

B. Milesburg

C. Near Aaronsburg

14) The Philips screw originated in the Philipsburg Wood Screw Factory, which was active in the l820s. True or false?

15) In what year were the first public schools started in Centre County?

A. 1800

B. 1834

C. 1850

16) What was the Alley Popper?

A. A trail that ran over Centre Hall Mountain connecting Centre Hall and Pleasant Gap.

B. A nickname for the Altoona & Philipsburg Connecting Railroad, built around 1890.

C. The name of a saloon at Old Fort in the early 1900s.

17) The first graduation from what is now Penn State was held in 1861 How many students received the degree of bachelor of scientific agriculture?

A. 50

B. 11

C. 25

18) Why was John Montgomery Ward former resident of Bellefonte inducted into the Baseball Hail of Fame in 1945?

A. He had the most home runs in one year.

B. He struck out the most batters in one season.

C. He was the first pitcher to perfect the curve ball.

19) One of Gregg Townships early schools was plagued with a repeated problem. What was it?

A. The teachers did not stay very long because of discipline.

B. When the creek flooded they could not have school.

C. The squirrels kept breaking the windows.

20) When did the first car dealership open in Penns Valley?

A. 1909

B. 1912

C. 1919, after World War I

21) Jacob Myers, who was born in Bellefonte, is known as the inventor of what machine?

A. Ice-cream making machine

B. Voting machine

C. Iron washing machine

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